Performance
Fast response times, permanency and reliability, no program crashes, punctual completion of the monthly accounts – all these are performance criteria.
When we talk about performance in relation to SAP systems, we are mostly talking about response times. And that alone is a complex question which usually has an (overly) simple answer: More hardware.
We know from numerous projects that that way will not be fruitful, but will just run up costs. And frustration is also guaranteed if that is done.
The path to good performance takes the following route:
1. An accurate analysis of the current situation
With response times, the first thing that needs to be done is to establish real response times as measured by the IT department, compared to the response times “perceived” by the users. As we all know, this problem can quite rightly turn into an emotional debate between IT and users. Users get the feeling they’re not understood because they can’t really demonstrate their individual daily frustrations with the system. The IT department, on the other hand, points to the figures it has obtained through measurements, which allegedly then refute the users’ complaints.
VMS helps clear up this discussion by providing a precise measurement of the systems. And that does not just include hit lists and average values. Instead, it includes issues like: How dynamic is the system ? Is system behavior predictable for the user ? Under what conditions do bad response times occur ? When response times are longer, is that caused by a resource chokepoint, or caused by multiple user activities occurring at the same time ?
The VMS Report answers these details in detail. This brings us to step two:
2. Causation analysis
Our approach is to use the VMS DataCollector to measure in detail the systems affected. Reference parameters here include the applications and database server, the CPU, memory, the load put on the database by the various users, batch programs, interfaces, etc.
The VMS DataCollector records the system behavior in detail and the VMS Report provides the results of the analyses. While only ad-hoc checks are possible in the CCMS, the VMS Report tests statistical similarities in situations from the entire measuring period. So it’s a tool for the difficult cases as well !
3. An Accurate Improvement of Performance, at Ideal Conditions
By means of precision analysis, VMS can develop ideal solutions – changes to configurations, changes to the DB design or to the client’s own programs, changes to the hardware landscape – and sometimes that might include more hardware, but if so, just what is needed, and not more.