Besides application security testing — which I’ll be taking a closer look at next time — I want to focus now on three capabilities that can make all the difference when it comes to getting the most from an application support services provider:
- Database performance and stability monitoring
- Beta and test environment architecture, and
- Documentation solutions
Database performance and stability monitoring
Your application development services provider should operate a Network Operations Center (NOC) that does database performance monitoring and proactive stability and report alerting as well as offering performance recommendations to help improve the stability and scalability of your apps. Your provider’s database engineers should be able to assist with platform and architecture performance recommendations, to detail bottlenecks, and to work closely with you to tune application performance.
Beta and test environment architecture
To help prevent you from struggling to maintain clean and identical beta environments in support of your software development lifecycles , your provider should be expert at setting up and maintaining beta or test environments to mirror your production needs — and to provide this capability on your premises or in one of their data centers.
Documentation solutions
Your provider should deliver dynamic and tested documentation solutions into your environment, rapidly populated and supported by your team and/or theirs. And your provider should be able to implement a turn-key documentation solution quickly and inexpensively.
Your documentation should be placed in either your provider’s Cloud, a private Cloud, or at your site so global development teams are quickly supported. You should have the ability to compile your documentation on demand for legacy or production applications, and your development and support teams should be able to maintain it using a highly flexible documentation repository.
