Monitoring SaaS Application Performance with NETSCOUT: Breaking Out of the “Black Box”

Are your users complaining about slow SaaS service performance? Do you feel like a blind kitten trying to figure out where the problem lies – in your network, on the internet, or on the provider’s side? Modern businesses are increasingly dependent on cloud applications such as Office 365, Salesforce, and others. However, when performance issues arise, traditional monitoring tools prove ineffective. NETSCOUT provides a comprehensive solution for SaaS performance monitoring, allowing you not only to quickly identify and eliminate bottlenecks but also to prove that the problem is outside your area of responsibility. With NETSCOUT, you gain complete transparency into the operation of SaaS applications and confidence in the stability of your business.

Why Traditional Monitoring Fails with SaaS

Traditional monitoring tools, focused on on-premises infrastructure, lose their effectiveness when working with SaaS applications. The reasons are as follows:

• “Black Box”: You do not have access to the SaaS provider’s infrastructure. It is impossible to install monitoring agents on its servers or access system logs.
• Network Complexity: Traffic from users to SaaS servers passes through many network devices and internet providers, each of which can cause delays.
• Variability: The SaaS provider’s infrastructure is constantly changing and being optimized, rendering traditional monitoring methods obsolete.

NETSCOUT: Transparency and Control over SaaS Performance

NETSCOUT offers a fundamentally different approach to SaaS performance monitoring, based on network traffic analysis (Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics, NPMD). The solution allows you to:

• Visualize the entire traffic path from the user to the SaaS server.
• Identify bottlenecks and delays at each stage of the route.
• Determine where the problem lies: in your network, in the internet provider’s network, or on the SaaS provider’s side.
• Get detailed information about the performance of each SaaS application, including response time, number of errors, and bandwidth.

How it Works: Deep Network Traffic Analysis

The NETSCOUT solution is based on Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology. This technology allows you to extract metadata from network traffic without decrypting the content itself. The information obtained is used to analyze application performance, detect anomalies, and diagnose problems.

Key NETSCOUT capabilities for SaaS monitoring:

• Smart Data: Transforming network traffic into meaningful data about application performance.
• Service Dependency Mapping: Automatically building a map of dependencies between applications and infrastructure.
• Automated Anomaly Detection: Automatically detecting anomalies in the operation of applications and the network.
• Root Cause Analysis: Quickly locating the root causes of problems.

Solving Specific Problems: How NETSCOUT Helps

Let’s look at how NETSCOUT can help in solving specific problems related to SaaS performance monitoring.

Office 365 is Running Slowly

Users complain that Office 365 is running slowly. How to prove that the problem is not in your network?

NETSCOUT allows you to:

• Determine the Office 365 response time for each user and each application (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams).
• Visualize the traffic path to Office 365 servers and identify bottlenecks (for example, delays in the internet provider’s network).
• Compare Office 365 performance with baseline metrics and identify anomalies.
• Provide proof to the SaaS provider (Microsoft) of problems on its side.

Thus, NETSCOUT helps identify the cause of slow operation of Office 365 and prove that the problem is outside your area of responsibility.

Delays in Salesforce

The sales department complains about delays in Salesforce. Deals are lost, and employee efficiency is falling. How to quickly find the cause?

NETSCOUT allows you to:

• Determine which transactions in Salesforce cause the most delays.
• Identify specific Salesforce servers that are overloaded.
• Analyze network traffic between your users and Salesforce servers and identify bottlenecks.
• Determine whether Salesforce performance issues are related to changes in your network or the SaaS provider’s infrastructure.

NETSCOUT helps to quickly locate the cause of delays in Salesforce and take measures to eliminate it. This could be optimizing database queries, migrating to more powerful servers, or changing the network configuration.

How to Prove the Problem is on the SaaS Provider’s Side

A situation often arises when users complain about the slow operation of a SaaS application, and the provider claims that everything is working normally. How to prove that the problem is on his side?

NETSCOUT provides irrefutable evidence:

• Detailed reports on application response times that show that delays exceed acceptable values.
• Data on network delays on the SaaS provider’s side, which show that the problem is not in your network.
• Traffic analysis that shows that the provider’s servers are overloaded or working with errors.

With this data in hand, you can reasonably appeal to the SaaS provider and demand that the problems be fixed.

Key Benefits of NETSCOUT for SaaS Monitoring

NETSCOUT is not just a monitoring tool; it is a comprehensive solution that allows you to:

• Get full transparency into the operation of SaaS applications.
• Quickly identify and eliminate bottlenecks and delays.
• Prove that the problem is outside your area of responsibility.
• Optimize the performance of SaaS applications and increase employee efficiency.
• Reduce the risks associated with using cloud services.

NETSCOUT provides unique value for IT managers and NetOps, allowing them to effectively manage the performance of SaaS applications and ensure business stability.

Contact us for a personalized consultation. and find out how we can help you solve problems with SaaS performance monitoring.