If all you have is the beginning and the end, you’re left with a short, boring story: “Once upon a time, it was UP…then, it was DOWN.” Knowing the twists and turns of your transaction pathways is not only illuminating, but profitable. Information channels dry up when all you have are pieces.

HR people have a saying: right person, right place, right time, meaning that the right resources can make all the difference when it counts. The same goes for Incident management and response, where very often the wrong person, place, or time can contribute to mounting catastrophe. As systems grow, the right person really can make the difference during an outage simply due to command or knowledge of the system.

Once upon a time there was the internet, and it was good, and it was global. We built our businesses across its networks and expanded our commerce from computer to cloud. Like with any physical trade route, the journeys are not always consistent. If your website is your flagship, your reports are your map. Sites rely on servers and it’s possible that your site might be UP in the UK but DOWN in Dallas.