Gartner's recent report, Will IT Operations Analytics Platforms Replace APM Suites?, shows some interesting trends that could change the face of Application Performance Management (APM). And even the title of the report is provocative.

However, I felt it was important to point out that the stats from this report only mean that certain types of solutions labeled as "APM" may not have the same level of sales in 2013 that they had in 2012.

The stats in no way imply that enterprises are moving away from APM as a technology, or that the APM industry is in trouble, and Will Cappelli, Gartner Research VP in Enterprise Management, confirms this in APMdigest's January Q&A.

In fact, I make the case in the interview, and I reiterate here, that I believe the move toward analytics is a positive move for the industry. It is a maturation of the APM initiatives across the board and signals a potential for long-term growth.

I have always felt that analytics must be a key component of APM, and the model of Gartner's 5 dimensions of APM supports this view. For years we have been moving beyond APM as Application Performance Monitoring to the more sophisticated Application Performance Management, and this cannot be done without a total embrace of advanced analytics.

It is not a coincidence that Dennis Drogseth of EMA also released a recent report on analytics called EMA Radar for Advanced Performance Analytics (APA) Use Cases: Q4 2012.

And whether or not you buy into the hype that is "Big Data", the fact remains that the amount of app performance data that must be processed is growing exponentially. We are talking millions, even billions, of metrics, in some cases. Currently analytics looks like a must-have to address this challenge.

Analytics is clearly taking its place as a primary component of APM, and this should be celebrated, especially by the users, who will benefit greatly from the advances in analytics that we will witness over the next couple years.

So, as you can see, APM is alive and well, and some might even say better than ever.