Cybersecurity and IT departments always need to have control of their assets, physical devices, data, and applications. Of these, the applications are some of the most important because they are the driving forces of your revenues and reputation.
This is why you need a frictionless application observability platform that puts you in complete control of their business applications.
In that context, you need the following to be in control:
1. A real-time, visual representation of your IT infrastructure
2. A complete understanding of the relationships and dependencies between your business applications and the underlying IT infrastructure
3. The confidence to know that you can make changes without crashing those business applications
Essentially, application mapping is exactly where IT infrastructure and business operations meet. But there are different levels of mapping.
Take traditional mapping. The lowest level is just wandering around and asking people for directions. The next level up is using a printed map to plan a route from point A to point B. The next level up is having a GPS that tells you how to do that. The top level is using Waze to navigate from here to there while using real-time insights to adapt to the ever-changing conditions on the road.
Now, take application mapping. The lowest level is having all of the knowledge of your IT infrastructure’s architecture inside the heads of your team members. The next level up is having static documentation of your environment in print form or maintained in Excel or Visio. The next level up is using legacy application mapping tools that conduct scans to deliver static screenshots that become irrelevant in a day or two.
Just like Waze bases its recommendations on real time information, the top level in application mapping is using a dynamic and agentless application mapping to get insights based on the ongoing changes within your IT topologies.
Continuously mapping the architecture of your business applications by reaching that top level is extremely challenging, but it is a basic task that must be done. Without that understanding, any infrastructural change is a pure gamble.
Business applications are the heartbeat of an organization because they are the engine that generates profits. There is nothing more important for the corporation than being in control of them, ensuring a continued functioning of its IT operations.
