Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

Ping is more than just a simple vocabulary term in the world of network diagnostics. It’s a fundamental tool that helps ensure the smooth operation of your network. Whether you’re a seasoned site reliability engineer (SRE), developer, or IT manager, monitoring essential ping metrics like latency, round-trip time (RTT), and packet loss is key to maintaining optimal network performance.

In the modern world of e-commerce, customer expectations are sky-high: online shoppers are used to seamless user experiences, even with massive online retailers operating at scales that were previously unthinkable. Services like Shopify provide accessible modern storefronts and payment processes, reducing the need for significant backend work to get an online store up and running.

So, you’re browsing the web, adding items to your cart, maybe even entering your secret pizza recipe into an online form (we won’t judge). Ever wondered how all that sensitive information doesn’t end up in the hands of internet pirates? Enter SSL — which stands for Secure Sockets Layer.

What is uptime anyway? Behind any successful online operation is a resilient infrastructure and a team with a well-honed operational discipline dedicated to ensuring uptime metrics consistently meet the benchmarks required to fulfill service commitments. However, brief downtime can have serious repercussions when infrastructure falters or servers are pushed past their limits.

What are availability and uptime metrics and why should you measure them? In the past, development teams pushed new features, and operations teams handled issues as they arose. However, as more businesses pivot to a DevOps infrastructure, all IT teams work side by side throughout an application’s lifecycle, from coding and testing to deployment and monitoring.

Why do services need API monitoring? Application programming interfaces (APIs) have become indispensable for digital business. Forbes found that 98% of developers consider APIs to be crucial to getting their work done, and 86% of developers expected their use of APIs to increase. A survey by McKinsey found that 88% of banking companies believe APIs are increasing in importance; 81% think APIs are a priority for business and IT.

Synthetic monitoring (SM) uses script-based, simulated user interactions to assess the performance and reliability of websites, application program interfaces (APIs), and other digital services. These scripts can mimic typical user behaviors, such as logging in, completing a purchase, site navigation, etc., and run consistently from multiple locations so you get real-time feedback on how your systems handle different scenarios.