Analyst Jean Pierre Garbani, of Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc., said OpTier's ability to show transaction activity and allow users to prioritize them is an important plus. 'This is the kind of thing you could find in mainframes previously, but not in distributed computing,' Garbani said.

Dennis Drogseth, an analyst with Boulder, Colo.-based Enterprise Management Associates, called CoreFirst's capabilities 'very useful' for users. 'They're transaction-centric,' he said. 'That's the best baseline for understanding the quality of user experience. And they have active optimization, which is distinctive.'

OpTier also is very good at providing information on 'service accounting,' or how much of a service is being used and who is using it, he said. 'That's a very valuable combination. I see a lot of growth in the marketplace. I don't know of any vendor of any size combining all three.'