Foundations of Application Management

This book is outdated with respect to product capabilities and some of the standards discussed. However, it remains a valuable resource for the following reasons:(1) It places application management into a coherent context, (2) major standards are covered (DTMF, POSIX, SNMP), (3) vendor initiated standards are addressed, such as IBM's Tivoli Application Management Specification and the Application Response Measurement API (sponsored by a consortium of vendors), (4) it adds a dimension of practicality to application management context by providing example commercial- and standards-based approaches.What I particularly like about this book is the fact that it is focused on application management and does not drift off into other areas. All of the major standards and vendor initiatives and approaches are covered, and the challenges of application management are objectively discussed. However, time is rendering this book obsolete and it is going to need a complete revision in the next year or so. As of the date of this review I recommend this book to anyone who is looking at the big picture of service delivery and service level management because application management is one essential element. However, I am not sure if I could make the same recommendation a year from now.