Effective monitoring makes a difference to businesses of all sizes, but is especially valuable to startups, where squeezing the most out of your software resources is vital if you want to compete successfully and grow swiftly.
Knowing which of the myriad software monitoring tools to use is of course a challenge, so to simplify things, here is a look at some of the top options to implement right now.
AppDynamics
If you are concerned about software quality assurance and you want to monitor app performance comprehensively, then AppDynamics is a suitable choice.
Like a lot of its rivals, it supports a range of platforms including mobile and desktop ecosystems, as well as SaaS setups.
When comparing AppDynamics vs. Datadog, it is a close-fought battle, but the round-the-clock live support afforded by the former just gives it the edge if you cannot tolerate any kind of downtime or app instability.
Prometheus
An open-source alternative for monitoring events and generating alerts to help with software development, Prometheus is obviously appealing to startups because it doesn’t require significant investment to set up or sustain.
The information that Prometheus generates when events are logged is time-stamped and can be stored, organized, and analyzed within a cohesive and coherent database system which makes it easy to extrapolate actionable insights.
Additionally, because Prometheus operates based on individual, autonomous server nodes, as opposed to being beholden to distributed storage, it can be self-contained and suited to monitoring smaller projects as needed. Again, this is a selling point for startups, or indeed any organization that has a need for this specific solution.
Grafana
Following on with another open-source tool, Grafana is an incredibly flexible option for generating custom dashboards via which information and alerts from a range of sources can be orchestrated and overseen.
In many cases, business users will combine it with Prometheus and other tools in order to achieve the desired goals of their particular project.
For example, if you are prioritizing performance, this can be assigned to part of the dashboard, giving you an instant overview of how server hardware is faring from moment to moment, as well as overtime.
This can be contrasted against other alerts and info, such as the number of concurrent users, the loading speed of web app pages, and so on.
Again, all of this will give you an idea of not just how particular metrics are fluctuating in isolation, but also how these might apply to other aspects of an app or service’s performance.
This lets you then make informed tweaks and changes, as well as facilitating fast and accurate troubleshooting that is not beholden to the luck of guesswork.
Loki
Unashamedly inspired by Prometheus but part of the Grafana ecology, Loki is all about log aggregation and making this simple and inexpensive to achieve, as well as providing adequate scalability and excellent overall durability and resilience.
What is more, it is also thoroughly integrable, providing native support for Prometheus and Grafana alike. This makes it a breeze to manage everything as part of whatever interface or dashboard you prefer.
As you might expect, Loki lets you automate the process of alert generation according to the requirements of your project, and put together an overview of mission-critical metrics according to this.
Likewise, you can track logged events in real-time, or get scheduled snapshots that are aligned with your aims.
This is just a small sample of tools that your startup might need, and experimentation is the best way to find a combination that fits your budget as well as your organization’s requirements.