Learn how Splunk AppDynamics optimizes hybrid and on-prem application performance with full-stack observability linked to business performance.
Superior availability of more than 180 applications
Perform IT, an AppDynamics Titan partner, replaced the previous monitoring tools with AppDynamics, allowing FAB to have a more agile and integrated approach to application management. Proactive alerts and dynamic baselining allow teams to quickly spot and address performance issues before they impact customers. Complete visibility across the application system allows FAB to understand the root cause of performance issues and triage them at the source, rather than simply patching them at the surface.
FAB initially onboarded 60 business applications onto AppDynamics — but strong results and positive feedback from employees saw that figure rise to 120 applications just one year after going live. Today, the company uses AppDynamics to monitor 180+ applications, delivering value to teams across the organization. Perform IT supports the local FAB team in their effort to standardize onboarding and enable application teams using AppDynamics.
“We saw instant results from AppDynamics, and the speed with which we continue to onboard new applications onto the solution is a testament to the value it delivers,” says Navid Thakur, Vice President of Enterprise Tools and Automation at FAB. “It’s also a testament to our employees and their commitment to continuous improvement of our services.”
The impact of AppDynamics as part of the journey to full-stack observability has been widespread, enhancing performance of FAB’s business, IT operations, and development and testing teams. The solution broke down silos between these functions, which now work together closely to detect, alert, and resolve performance issues in record time.
“By managing application performance more proactively with AppDynamics as part of our effort towards full-stack observability, we’re providing concrete value to the entire business. More than 180 applications now run with fewer incidents and improved availability, which means less effort for our teams and a better experience for customers,” says Navid Thakur.
Adopting a DevOps mindset
AppDynamics is also supporting FAB's effort to pioneer a new approach to IT among UAE banks. FAB is one of the early adopter banks in the country to migrate from on-prem IT applications to software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud technologies, all while maintaining visibility across these services via AppDynamics. Local partner Perform IT brought their expertise with AppDynamics and cloud-native applications to deliver the right support to Fab and its digital transformation journey.
In parallel, the bank is moving towards a DevOps mentality in its application management and development. Instead of pure project delivery, where applications go into production as soon as they’re ready, FAB now encourages teams to take ownership of the apps they build and optimize new services that take the customer experience to the next level.
“Our goal is for every service team at FAB to have AppDynamics open all day, every day — not only to deal with performance issues and keep our business running smoothly, but also to dive deeper to better understand how our systems behave and uncover new ways to make our applications stronger than ever,” says Emma Lewis. “How can we reduce response times? How can we eliminate blips and service issues at peak demand periods? How can we make the experience better for customers? These are the questions that can transform the way we work and serve the market, and now we have a solution that can help us find the answers we need,” she adds.
FAB also plans to shift its application development to cloud microservices, managed and deployed via Kubernetes. Visibility into application performance will be essential in the new environment — yet another reason the bank has adopted AppDynamics to help modernize its IT operations.
Going the extra mile with AppDynamics and Perform IT
With AppDynamics and the expertise of Perform IT, FAB has successfully minimized the impact of a typical distributed business flow.
AppDynamics integrates with third-party tools to take data out or bring data into the system, which is becoming business-as-usual as AppDynamics starts to take a central place within the bank’s monitoring suite of tools. Having the ability to immediately react and address an integration opportunity proved beneficial for the DevOps mindset where sprints can be aggressive to delivery timelines.
Automating agent deployment is important toFAB’s monitoring adoption strategy. Working closely with AppDynamics and Perform IT enables FAB to seek and implement automation opportunities that work in the environment.
Trailblazing a better experience for customers and employees
The first phase of FAB’s undertaking — reducing downtime and performance incidents across its application portfolio — has been a resounding success. Following a recent benefit realization exercise, dozens of employees reported improved uptime and faster issue resolution thanks to their use of AppDynamics.
For instance, FAB saw a 61% reduction in downtime for a business-critical service providing point-of-sale and integrated self-service banking, an 87% reduction in downtime for Internet and mobile banking, and an impressive 98% reduction in downtime for the multicurrency bank account service.
The team responsible for FAB’s instant credit decision engine reported it can now respond to requests from business stakeholders and find the root cause of performance issues more quickly. Instead of 120 milliseconds, responses now take as little as 70 milliseconds, a 42% improvement.
Equally important to Navid Thakur is that teams gained new insights into FAB’s performance at a granular level. Looking through the AppDynamics dashboards has opened devops/support teams’ eyes to anomalies that previous monitoring solutions never picked up, and empowered them to take proactive action to fix them, preventing major incidents.
“We transformed the way we work, and it all started with the visibility we gained with AppDynamics,” says Navid Thakur. “We’re totally in sync with our application performance, which has made us proactive and keeps our service lines one step ahead to detect and analyze faster and pin-point at the probable, and in various scenarios, exact root cause.”
Navid Thakur continues, “The partnership with Cisco as a product vendor and Perform IT as a partner to implement and onboard services to the platform has been very valuable. To operate these advanced technologies, companies need the right skills to be in place and we experienced that with Perform IT to be the right partner for accelerating our journey with the AppDynamics product.”
Building a proactive culture
In addition to optimizing performance, FAB’s focus today is on training employees to take full advantage of AppDynamics, create their own reports and dashboards, and uncover insights that will inspire them to go even further to perfect the customer experience.
Proactivity has become the new standard for the bank’s IT teams, which now monitor their systems and application code with unmatched vigor. AppDynamics allows them to detect gaps and opportunities for improvement more easily than ever, inspiring a cultural shift to accompany FAB's technology transformation. Whether it’s seeing and quickly resolving a five-second delay in the payment system or fixing a coding error, AppDynamics gives the teams the tools to address issues before they impact the business in major ways.
FAB’s mobile banking application, for example, notified the team of a potential service degradation, allowing the team to quickly address the issue before customers were impacted. AppDynamics also detects anomalies and proactively notifies teams, enabling them to identify the root cause quickly and fix potential issues within minutes
“We’re changing the way we manage the bank’s performance with a commitment to improvement and empowerment for our teams,” says Emma Lewis. “With AppDynamics, we can incentivize our application owners and recognize them for what they truly are – trailblazers who keep our business connected to its customers.”
Looking ahead to full-stack observability
FAB continues its quest for solutions that allow for optimizing customer experiences even further. Most recently, the company added ThousandEyes to its technology stack for comprehensive digital experience monitoring.
“The combination of AppDynamics and ThousandEyes will give us deeper visibility across the full digital supply chain. As we continue on our path to full-stack observability, we’ll be equipped to deliver stellar experiences for our customers,” concludes Emma Lewis.
