Continued innovation and investment are key as partners cite use case diversity as major trend
Speaking at the Dynatrace Innovate EMEA 2024 partner conference, taking place in Amsterdam this week, IT Europa caught up with two key Dynatrace partners—Andrew Fleck, Head of Observability and Digital Performance Management at Eviden, and Hans Verschoore, Hybrid Cloud and Emerging Platforms Lead at Accenture. Both shared their views on the current state and future of the Application Performance Management (APM) and observability markets, providing insights into how these technologies are reshaping enterprise IT.
Addressing Complexity with Unified APM Solutions
Andrew Fleck (pictured), who leads observability and digital performance management at Eviden, an Atos company, brings decades of experience in the APM sector. Starting his career with Mercury Interactive, one of the pioneering APM companies, Fleck has seen the landscape evolve from basic performance management to today's sophisticated observability platforms. During the conference, he reflected on this evolution, saying, "There's a whole thing around the solution and the maturity of the solution, and the fact that we've been trying to fix the same problem for 30 years, and it's only now that the technology has matured to a level with some of the vendors that allows us to actually deliver on that".
Fleck also praised Dynatrace’s forward-thinking approach, noting that they completely re-architected their platform instead of bolting on various acquisitions: "When [Dynatrace] spun off from the Compuware stuff, they went through a whole redesign... they kind of bit the bullet and re-architected it completely". This decision helped Dynatrace stay at the forefront of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for observability.
Fleck highlighted the value of Dynatrace as part of Eviden’s managed services, explaining, "We’re interested in embedding Dynatrace into our own managed services to make them more competitive. It’s about a balanced relationship where we drive net new opportunities for Dynatrace, and they, in turn, help us extract the full value of the platform for our clients".
As proof of this position, Fleck shared details about Eviden’s newly launched cloud management platform, which has successfully migrated 25 customers from a rival APM vendor to Dynatrace. "We’ve designed, implemented, and onboarded the first 25 customers onto that platform," Fleck explained, emphasizing the operational benefits this shift has brought. He added, "We have an operational saving of 2 million euros over three years, and we've already seen a reduction in incidence volume of 50%." Fleck underscored that this transition not only strengthens Eviden’s managed services offering but also demonstrates their long-term commitment to Dynatrace as a strategic partner: "The observability section of that is basically a combination of Dynatrace and ServiceNow together".
Observability as a Strategic Differentiator
Hans Verschoore, Accenture’s Hybrid Cloud and Emerging Platforms Lead for EMEA, also shared his perspective, focusing on observability’s growing importance in driving enterprise-wide transformation. As the leader of Accenture's Cloud First initiative, Verschoore works with clients across the region, helping them navigate the challenges of hybrid and multi-cloud environments. He emphasized, "Observability is fundamentally about observing the behaviour of components in a large, complex IT estate and deriving insights from that through either advanced analytics or AI algorithms".
Verschoore also noted that observability plays a key role in what Accenture calls "total enterprise reinvention." He explained, "Observability becomes a core component of operating your entire estate in the most efficient way. It’s basically helping clients to do more with less". Verschoore’s collaboration with Dynatrace is focused on leveraging observability to build automated, self-healing IT environments that deliver continuous optimization.
Partner expectations
Looking ahead, Hans Verschoore shared his expectations for Dynatrace moving forward: "I want them to continue to be at the forefront of leveraging AI in their product... I want them to be able to manage all those diverse technologies that are typically present at our clients. I want them to continue to be that unified platform that helps to do that". Verschoore’s focus remains on ensuring Dynatrace maintains its leadership in providing unified, AI-driven observability solutions that meet the evolving needs of Accenture’s clients across diverse industries.
3Fleck also outlined his expectations from Dynatrace, highlighting the importance of continued platform evolution: "We need them to ensure that they stay competitive in the market... There are competitors which are definitely challenging, so they need to continue to address that". Fleck stressed the need for Dynatrace to maintain its innovative edge to help Eviden deliver value to its customers.
A Unified Vision for the Future
Both Fleck and Verschoore recognize that the APM and observability markets are evolving towards greater automation and intelligence. As enterprises manage increasingly complex IT infrastructures, the need for solutions that provide real-time visibility and proactive issue resolution continues to grow.
The other trend is the diversity of use cases. As Verschoore explains, “…there are people in Accenture that are looking at Dynatrace as an APM platform. But at the same time, I also have strategy consulting folks that look at banking and are looking at becoming compliant with Dora regulations. They're looking at Dynatrace not as an APM tool. They're looking at Dynatrace as a toolbar that can help them to become compliant with regulations much faster. I strongly believe that digital experience as another valid area that is not in the traditional APM space.
“So, I believe there are customers, clients, partners, that are reaching a certain maturity and starting to look more into observability as a much broader topic than just about developer productivity, which is still a huge it's a huge area. But customer experience, citizen experience, you know, application experience, managing large, complex Estates that is increasingly becoming a major business topic.”
