One significant trend is the number of service companies that have emerged to measure response time for Internet-oriented applications. But the biggest trend is consolidation in a market that used to be fragmented. In the past, customers had to be their own integrator of various types of tools which truly was time consuming. But there is another area of interest, the ability to predict behavior before the application is deployed - so called Application Planning Tools. This is a field where a lot of work has been done to simplify the process without sacrificing the accuracy of the results.
Stress testing is the best choice here.
Modeling is the best choice here. Historically, this planning step has been perceived as too difficult or costly to do. But a number of new tools have emerged that make planning a reasonable job for the average company. This tools-assisted planning step, executed across the relevant organizations, and combined with comprehensive application performance monitoring and management, creates an environment where companies can finally achieve some level of end user satisfaction with their application deployments. In our AQM white paper, we talk in more detail about the processes and selected tools that can be used to facilitate the process steps.