Web Site Performance: There’s More To the Customer Experience Than Availability

Given the high cost of attracting new customers, retention of existing customers would seem to be an obvious goal. This is even truer within a Web site environment, where the nearest competitor is "simply a mouse click away".

Most of us typically experience Web site outages as slow page appearance and behavior, or actual page or server unavailability errors. But there is far more complexity to high-availability Web site performance, as experienced by end users, than meets the eye. Increasing customer demands for rich content, more Web site functionality provided through third-party links, and the correspondingly greater demands made on Web site infrastructure, or delivery engine and the "pipe" through which the end user views a site, makes delivering on high availability a genuine challenge.

Simply put, while a company's "flat" home page may load quickly, some users' experience within that page may not be optimal. Certain transactional or complicated functions (i.e. streaming video) may not be running efficiently--or at all--and frequently the operations staff may not even be aware of such problems. In addition, third-party links to partners, or links embedded within the site providing other functionality (i.e. stock quotes) may not be functioning either.

One fundamental reason for this incomplete perspective of the end-user experience is that most Web sites are not hosted internally, but rather outsourced to a hosting provider. Those Web hosting vendors do not typically offer the service or expertise to monitor or manage more than Web site server availability, not the links within a site, nor what the end user might be experiencing via the Internet "cloud". In other words, critical Web site functionality and data links are at risk to prolonged downtime, as viewed by end users, without discovery, diagnosis or remedy.

There are two basic approaches to the problem. The first is to hire staff, purchase software applications, and build out an organization that is dedicated to the end-to-end monitoring and management of applications and data links. However, the salary overhead alone for such personnel, especially when addressing a 24/7 customer-oriented Web site, makes this an expensive proposition.

A second solution is to engage a managed service provider who has the domain expertise and resources to cost-effectively monitor and manage high-availability Web sites, including the end-user experience.

As e-business infrastructure becomes more critical to the day-to-day productivity, and revenue generation of enterprises, there are several compelling reasons why value-conscious IT managers are choosing to engage management partners, rather than relying exclusively on the management services of their hosting providers.

Real Management Experience and Expertise
Effective e-business management requires significant expertise in a variety of disciplines: the implementation and operation of multiple state-of-the-art management tools, troubleshooting and root-cause analysis in highly-complex networked computing environments, and configuration and change management. Those skills are hard to retain, and must be updated regularly with training.

Facilities-Independent Scope and End-to-End Visibility
An independent management partner with strong remote management practices can apply those practices to any and all e-business infrastructures. That means common management architecture across co-located Web servers, middle- and back-tier enterprise servers and any third-party data sources and/or application services.

Flexible Engagement Terms
Rather than being restricted to a limited set of "a la carte" management items, a specialized management partner is better able to craft a customized solution driven by individual client needs.

Reduced Risk
With the current uncertainties in the hosting market, e-business managers are very concerned about their exposure in the event a key supplier experiences serious financial problems. By engaging an independent management partner, those managers can limit their exposure to such risk and ensure the ability to quickly move their infrastructure to another hosting company--should circumstances require them to do so.

The above factors make it clear that engaging an independent management partner is a better bet for ensuring the overall performance and stability of critical e-business applications than relying on a hosting provider alone. Just like offline businesses outsource or "out-task" key functions such as legal, accounting and employee benefits to experts in each field, it will become critical for e-business managers to outsource/out-task key functions of their operations to trusted third-party experts. In the case of managed services, that expertise lies with independent management solutions partners.

Dave Myers joined InterOPS in September 2001 as COO. He previously served as president and COO of cMeRun Corp. There he established the company's headquarter operations in Massachusetts, assembled a team of more than 40 employees, and brought the company to full operational status. Prior to that, Myers spent three years with Compaq Computer Corp. where, as senior director of ASP Business Development he directed equity investments

and co-marketing initiatives, and developed strategic alliances with leading service providers. As business manager in Digital Equipment Corp.'s IT outsourcing division, Myers helped start Digital's Internet Outsourcing Practice, which provided services to global enterprises, including General Electric, Microsoft and Reuters.

Myers' operational experience is complemented with a depth of IT industry experience. As a Consulting Manager for Digital Equipment Corp., he developed an IT executive strategy consulting methodology and developed a global practice focused on Global 1000 companies. He previously was IS Director for Commonwealth Energy (NSTAR) and Director of the Timesharing Business Group at Ziff-Davis.

Myers can be contacted at www.interops.com.