Any software needs constant monitoring and optimisation. It allows you to avoid work stoppages. However, in order for these processes to run properly and without any complications, it is necessary to ensure their automation and centralisation. How to do it? Check out our guide!
Benefits of automating and centralising application monitoring
The two biggest challenges in application monitoring are the dispersion of tools and their manual operation. Their maintenance, therefore, requires solutions leading to centralisation and automation. Thanks to this, all processes take place in one place and are adapted to previously established rules and alerts. This guarantees the consistency of results, speeds up work and prevents unnecessary waste.
Automated and centralised application monitoring consists in configuring settings that will allow you to track software, detect unwanted events and store all information about it in one place. In this way, any organisation can effectively manage the application infrastructure in real-time and protect it from downtime. Automation and centralisation also allow you to react in advance, even before the problem occurs and is noticed by users.
The key advantages of automation and centralisation of monitoring processes include:
- Reduced response time to errors and downtime
- Better visibility to detect patterns and stabilise the IT ecosystem
- Elimination of the error-prone human factor
- Adaptation of alerts to Key Performance Indicators
- Facilitating access to logs, which positively affects the programmers’ work
- Access to notifications from all used services in one place
- Improving the reliability and user experience of the application
Common web app maintenance mistakes — how to avoid them
While there are numerous benefits to automating software monitoring, some organisations still try to do it manually. Lack of continuous supervision of applications causes unnecessary downtime and losses. Such negligence results, among others, from:
- Lack of clear strategy
- Budget constraints
- Lack of experience
- Immature company culture
- Poor management
- A short-sighted perspective
To eliminate problems with application maintenance, companies should reach for tools such as Pagerduty. This solution was created to identify the most common problems with application monitoring and conversations between the manufacturer and customers. The key challenges and expectations were recognised at the outset:
- The most far-reaching automation of the application monitoring process
- Reducing manual work to minimise the risk of human error
- Identifying problems before they occur
- Reducing the number of tools used by the team
- Simplification of the process for the benefit of the client
The assumed goals were achieved thanks to the division of three main SLA support streams:
- Automatic, based on Sentry alerts
- Zendisk SLA ticketing
- Phone line on-call support
Automating and centralising support streams with Pagerduty allows you to gather information about events and manage all aspects of application monitoring in one place.
The most important principles and practices of application monitoring automation
In order to effectively introduce processes that automate and centralise application monitoring, the following principles should be followed:
- Start as soon as possible — the earlier you start making positive changes, the better. Ideally, monitoring applications are automated and centralised out of the box. It takes some time to learn them.
- Monitor everything — include all factors affecting your business success. You should be interested not only in the application infrastructure itself but also in its architecture, user experience, incurred costs, etc.
- Bet on smart notifications and reports — this will translate into quick problem-solving and identifying trends or bottlenecks.
- Take care of communication and cooperation — teamwork is the key to success in activities that improve application monitoring. Critical information must reach not only developers but also all users of the software and customers of the organisation.
- Run tests — there is no single effective recipe for automating and centralising monitoring applications. Developing the perfect solution requires experimentation and continuous adaptation of processes to the current needs of the company.
Automation and centralisation of tools is a necessity that allows you to build a competitive advantage and raises the user experience of the application to a higher level. It also favours the integration of the software with the facilities available on the market and minimises the risk of downtime. So, make the necessary changes in your business and eliminate problems before they appear! If you want to learn more about this, read the full version of this article: Automation and centralisation of application monitoring – best practices
