Riverbed Technology announced the availability of Riverbed OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5, a unified application performance management (APM) suite that provides deep visibility into the performance of complex, multi-tier applications.

The new features in OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5 combine to give complete visibility into the performance of applications, from the browser to backend databases.

By integrating end-user experience monitoring with code-level transaction tracing and monitoring of application and system performance metrics, application support teams and developers now have the information they need to more quickly and collaboratively identify, troubleshoot, and debug application performance issues.

With the introduction of OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5, application support, development, and QA teams have complete and coordinated visibility into application performance and, therefore, can proactively detect issues before they impact the business as well as analyze applications prior to deployment to identify bottlenecks that can impact performance in production.

In addition, organizations deploying OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5 can take advantage of other Riverbed technologies, including Riverbed Stingray® Traffic Manager, to gain added visibility into end user experiences.

Service-oriented architecture and agile development processes are not only increasing the rate at which new applications are rolled out, but also causing applications to sprawl and increase in complexity. New features in OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5 combine to provide application support teams and developers with the information they need to quickly identify and address complex, multi-tier application performance issues.

OPNET AppInternals Xpert now integrates with popular integrated development environments (IDE), including Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse. This integration enables bi-directional drill down to streamline application debugging and troubleshooting, and opens up visibility and enhances collaboration across application operations and developer teams.

For example, operations teams can drill down from the transaction trace to the affected code to highlight the affected calls or methods for developers. Developers and QA staff can also quickly debug new releases by understanding where code is being used and who is using it in the production environment.

OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5 integrates real end-user experience (EUE) monitoring with transaction tracing, and application component data-adding visibility into the front-end user experience and tying it back to the exact transaction responsible for the poor experience.

This integration enables application support teams to start troubleshooting with an accurate end-to-end view of application performance from the user's perspective. As a result, these teams are aware as soon as a problem occurs and can use this end-user experience and transaction information to guide a "deep dive" into the application transaction and specific code.

End-user experience monitoring of web-based applications, including cloud-based applications, is achieved by leveraging lightweight JavaScript which can now be automatically injected via AppInternals agents or Stingray Traffic Manager, an application delivery controller that allows organizations to build custom functionality or implement traffic management policies that are unique to an application.

"Whether organizations are deploying new applications, consolidating or virtualizing data centers, or migrating to the cloud, managing application performance requires a holistic view that includes end-user experience monitoring, application transaction tracing and component monitoring, and underlying infrastructure and network performance management," said Paul Brady, Sr VP and GM of the Riverbed Performance Management Business Unit. "OPNET AppInternals Xpert provides our customers with a fast path to application problem resolution by delivering the actionable insight and data that application support and developer teams need to deliver the application and business performance."

OPNET AppInternals Xpert 8.5 is available now.