A computer-implemented method for monitoring transactions in a distributed computing environment, comprising: - receiving, by a topology processor , topology data from one or more agents , where the topology data describes computing resources comprising the distributed computing environment and the one or more agents are instrumented in the computing resources; - constructing, by the topology processor , a topology model using the topology data , where the topology model includes topology entities which collectively describe a network topology of the computing resources; - receiving, by the topology processor , additional topology data from one or more agents , where the additional topology data describes mapping for one or more network endpoints; - constructing, by the topology processor , the topology model using the additional topology data ; - receiving, by an inference processor , transaction trace data captured by a given agent , where the transaction trace data identifies a given transaction being executed between a sender application and a receiver application and includes a performance metric for the given transaction; - identifying, by the inference processor , a particular computing resource which executes at least a portion of the given transaction; - determining, by the inference processor , presence of a given topology entity in the topology model , where the given topology entity corresponds to the particular computing resource; - updating, by the inference processor , the topology model with information for the given topology entity , where updating occurs in response to a determination that the given topology entity is absent from the topology model; and - updating, by the inference processor , the transaction trace data with identification data for the given topology entity in the topology model. - receiving, by a topology processor , topology data from one or more agents , where the topology data describes computing resources comprising the distributed computing environment and the one or more agents are instrumented in the computing resources; - constructing, by the topology processor , a topology model using the topology data , where the topology model includes topology entities which collectively describe a network topology of the computing resources; - receiving, by the topology processor , additional topology data from one or more agents , where the additional topology data describes mapping for one or more network endpoints; - constructing, by the topology processor , the topology model using the additional topology data ; - receiving, by an inference processor , transaction trace data captured by a given agent , where the transaction trace data identifies a given transaction being executed between a sender application and a receiver application and includes a performance metric for the given transaction; - identifying, by the inference processor , a particular computing resource which executes at least a portion of the given transaction; - determining, by the inference processor , presence of a given topology entity in the topology model , where the given topology entity corresponds to the particular computing resource; - updating, by the inference processor , the topology model with information for the given topology entity , where updating occurs in response to a determination that the given topology entity is absent from the topology model; and - updating, by the inference processor , the transaction trace data with identification data for the given topology entity in the topology model. <EOS>