Norwest Venture Partner-funded Appnomic Systems offers machine-learning enabled analytics technology to proactively monitor, capture and analyze performance metrics across the entire technology stack.
Application Performance Management refers to the process of ensuring that a software product is working fine across various scenarios. Typically, tools that track key performance metrics of a software product or platform, rely on pinpointing a section of code as the culprit for slowing down performance, but it would have worked just fine a few seconds back.
“We believe that there should be a way to proactively solve such problems and monitor application performance on an ongoing basis,” explains Padmanabhan D, Managing Director & CEO. And thus Paddy, as he is popularly called, and Alton Viegas, the company’s Director & CFO, started Appnomic in 2006, in Bengaluru, to develop machine-learning enabled analytics technology for proactive monitoring, capturing and analysing performance metrics across the technology stack.
AppsOne (A1), Appnomic’s flagship product, provides automated enterprise and cloud IT performance management solutions, helping businesses migrate, and flourish in cloud and hybrid environments. An Application Behaviour Learning (ABL) solution, it leverages real-time application usage patterns in its three-dimensional performance management model.
AppsOne has been running successfully since 2012 in most of the banks in India, including top private banks and PSUs. It serves other BFSI companies, the Government and e-com industries in India, Middle East and the US. The company has also launched AppsOne 2.0 with enhanced capabilities.
Riding On Innovation
Appnomic Systems is pivoted on innovation. Lean, mean and scalable are the key points the company focuses on, and therefore, R&D is critical. Its team of data scientists work with a ‘forward-looking’ approach to find means of improving product(s) that provide value to the customers.
The core vision is to develop software products, with a cognitive approach and a focus on simplicity of use. The products should meet global standards and requirements, by incorporating the latest in technology, with an ability to identify and resolve operational system conflicts in business applications which run in a diverse IT environment.
It is no secret that we are living in a candidate-driven market with demand to fill key technical positions far outstripping the supply
In the Face of Competition
There are other APM tool providers, but according to Paddy, they usually point to a chunk of code running slow or a particular SQL running slow and prescribe a system restart. “To us, this is only a symptom. AppsOne looks at all the events holistically and determines whether that is the root cause or a symptom,” he explains.
Using machine learning and patented Application Behavior Learning techniques, A1 is able to alert the users before the issue occurs, and also, in case of an issue occurring, is able to take a deep dive and determine what the real cause of the problem is. This, it does, using its own cognition, that it has built by learning system behavior, analyzing application usage patterns and predictively alerting in case it finds any deviation from the learning baseline. “We believe that A1 has ‘a mind of its own’ now, and that too is our USP,” he adds.
A1 is industry and technology-agnostic, fitting seamlessly into any new ‘world’ that it’s plugged into. Besides this, the enterprises also get a futuristic view of their businesses, utilizing the analytical capabilities that have been put in the AppsOne engine. Using cognitive automation, it gives them a preview into the potential issues that may happen, giving them a lead time to act and correct them, rather than getting into a reactive approach which translates into a lot of wastage in terms of revenue, time and efforts per se. In case an issue does occur, A1 looks end-to-end and gets into the root cause of the issues so that they are addressed and are avoided in future, which most of the other tools fail to identify.
Focus on Productivity
The company has a team size of 160 employees, which will be expanded further as they reach global markets. “It is no secret that we are living in a candidate-driven market with demand to fill technically skilled open positions far outstripping the supply and, the fact that we are hiring millennials makes it a tougher proposition in itself,” Paddy points out.
The company operates in a niche field and finding resources with experience in this domain is a challenge. “However, we have partially mitigated the problem by including individuals who are good at their craft, are agile and can multitask. Most importantly, we have been able to align their personal goals with that of the organization, thereby, taking care of the retention and growth aspects too,” he adds.
The Growth Story
Running an IT management services company and simultaneously doing R&D and developing an enterprise class product using the best technologies were challenging. “We were quite lucky and managed to acquire marquee customers who were very supportive and patient with us, giving us the opportunity required to meet their expectations,” explains Paddy. He admits that growth was limited between 2010 and 2015 as the APM market in the segments the venture operated in saw very little growth. However, with the arrival of competition in 2014-15, the market grew, as did customer demand.
To control cost of sales and marketing, the company has adopted a partner-led model to increase its market penetration. Due to the success of this model, it plans to strengthen partnership models with system integrators and service providers.
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) supported Appnomic with all its capital needs, funding up to US $12.5 million across three rounds. The funds were primarily used for expanding the company’s market operations in the US and enhancing its products and services.
“We last raised a significantly good amount in Series D in 2016 from NVP,” adds he, without revealing the sum. However, as the company is now profitable with positive cash flows, there are no further plans for raising funds in the near future. “There seems to be a potential to increase revenues by over 100 per cent year-on-year going forward. We are in the process of finalising our plans for the next few years and could require additional capital to tap the potential,” he says as he signs off.
Snapshot
Appnomic Systems
Founded by: Padmanabhan D, Alton Viegas
Year: 2006
Investors: Norwest Venture Partners
Focus: Develops machine-learning-based Application Behavior Learning (ABL) solutions for large enterprises
Concept in Brief
Application Performance Management tools typically show a piece of code as being slow when applications become slow, while the same code would have worked fine a second ago! Padmanabhan D and Alton Viegas decided that there must be a way to proactively solve such problems and started Appnomic Systems in 2006, to develop machine-learning enabled analytics technology for proactive monitoring, capturing and analysing performance metrics across the technology stack. The company, which has been funded by Norwest Venture Partners across four rounds, has a team of 160 people and caters to the needs of BFSI, Government and e-com companies in India, US and the Middle East.
