Some companies complain that this limits the amount of useful information that can be collected, but it can provide a good compromise. And, of course, for those companies that are very concerned about performance, there is no reason why a mix of tools should not be used. Service-based tools can deconstruct individual Web transactions but are limited when it comes to drilling down into supporting systems. To monitor databases and other supporting services, software-based monitoring tools are required, but are difficult and costly to deploy. Interpretation of large volumes of performance metrics can be time-consuming because few correlation tools available.
Some vendors offer managed implementations of their software-based monitoring tools.
This can offer a good compromise, offering the advantages of both methods.