New E-Business Monitoring Tool: Web Transaction Monitor simulating the steps of real user activity

Dec. 21, 2009 - PRLog -- Novosibirsk, Russia -- IPHostMonitor Inc, has announced today the availability of a new add-on tool for IPHost Network Monitor – the Web Transaction monitor http://www.iphostmonitor.com that allows end-to-end monitoring of web applications and e-commerce sites such as internet shops, by simulating the steps of real user activity so the tool lets users to monitor constantly real user experience to be sure an online shop or enterprise web application performs well. The tool notifies an administrator if performance becomes unacceptable.

Availability and performance monitoring of web applications is an essential task for each business that relies on web applications in its everyday activity. For internet companies whose core business is provided by web applications and services the monitoring of such applications is a vital part of their business operations. Even a small outage can lead to substantial losses so businesses should do their best to avoid outages or to minimize negative impacts by a timely reaction to the problems.

The Web Transaction monitor provides businesses with a tool to monitor web application availability and performance. The Web transaction monitor lets them ensure that web applications and services are functioning properly and deliver acceptable performance from the end-user perspective. By simulating real-user experience, this web application monitoring tool provides realistic results reflecting what end-users are experiencing when performing any type of e-business transaction on a website.

Typical web transactions are customer logins, navigation through a product catalog, products search, order fulfillment, submitting different types of web forms, and other user interactions with a website or web application. The Web Transaction monitor add-on for IPHost Network Monitor supports monitoring of the functionality listed above. It can check pages with a dynamically generated content (product catalog); page request parameters can also be dynamic (generated by a server session or specified by the user), it supports form submission, logging into a web application or e-commerce site, admin panel actions, and so on.

Administrator can check whether a specified text string appears or does not appear on some page every time this monitor runs. For instance, it's possible to check for the string ‘Welcome, John Smith’ to be sure the login has been successful. Users can set performance thresholds to be notified if web application performance from the site visitor perspective becomes unacceptable. These early warning notifications help you to prevent more serious problems that can lead to system outages and big losses.

It's not required to be an expert in monitoring and web applications to create a meaningful web transaction monitor. The Web transaction recorder (which looks and acts like a web browser) lets you create a monitor by simply navigating through the web pages using the functionality that should be monitored. The Replay function provides user with the ability to visually check that web transaction recording goes flawlessly and the resulting monitor works correctly. This function is extremely helpful when if a performance or availability problems with an application have been received; replaying the same request sequence in the recorder helps users to understand what steps are OK and what are not, as well as to validate the fixes an administrator might have made to restore the operability of the application.

About IPHost Network Monitor

IPHost Network Monitor is a cost-effective, easy-to-use network, server and application monitoring tool specifically designed for small- and medium-sized businesses with up to several hundred monitored devices and systems. With IPHost Network Monitor it's possible to monitor both Windows and Unix based networks, various servers and network equipment, availability and performance characteristics of web and other applications. The advanced alerting system provides timely notifications using several means such as e-mail, SMS, and instant messengers; the system is also able to execute correcting actions locally or remotely via SSH. Reporting and graphs are available through a web interface.

Pricing and Availability

IPHost Network Monitor is designed for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 and Server 2003/2008. The 30-day trial version with the full set of features limited to 20 monitors can be downloaded at http://www.iphostmonitor.com/download.html . The program prices start at USD $99 for the license allowing 50 monitors and a limited set of features, the Professional edition with the full set of features and an unlimited number of monitors is priced at USD $649. Each license includes the Maintenance&Support contract for one year for free. The Web Transaction monitor add-on is available in 5-monitor packs priced at $199, the option with an unlimited number of Web Transaction monitors allowed is priced at $499.

Publisher & Editorial Information

IT reviewers are encouraged to use this press release and any other related materials. We will be pleased to grant you a free registration key. If you do not consider electronically distributed software, please e-mail us with the details of your postal address and we will send you a jewel case. Cover media editors are authorized to include the 30-day trial version of IPHost Network Monitor 2.1 in their CD/DVD-ROMs.

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About IpHostMonitor Inc: the company specializes in network and server monitoring software development, marketing and support. Company also provides custom software development services mainly in the areas of networking, telecommunications, and embedded systems.