In an age where cloud-based services live happily alongside old-school, in-house servers and database instances, it’s reassuring to know that the Site24x7 platform lets any company keep tabs on just about every networked component of even the most complex topology. As the service’s name suggests (Site24x7 is an offering from Zoho), you can use the solution to monitor websites, but like today’s IT provision, that’s just the start of a much more complex picture.

We see three main functions in companies that will be interested in Site24x7: systems administrators are the obvious first target, closely followed by DevOps departments or teams, keen to gain oversight into microservices’ performance levels, deployment methods’ robustness, and framework viability. The third area will be any company acting in any capacity as an MSP (managed service provider), or that needs oversight into systems that aren’t necessarily its own – logistics companies working as partners with the organization, for example, whose systems’ quality of service (or lack thereof) will have serious implications.

The truth is, while it’s tempting in this type of article to simply list all the available options and the ways that insights are created into even the most esoteric, networked service or piece of hardware, reading lists of features doesn’t make for a particularly fascinating experience. If we take it as read that Site24x7 lets companies of any size gain oversight into sites and services just about anywhere (in-house, remote, on public clouds, or in edge, or otherwise), perhaps it would be better to concentrate on the platform’s business focus.

Real User Monitoring, for example, means that teams can see how real-world customers (QA testers or chosen guinea pigs) respond to services they might or do use, checking reasons for system slow-down, drops in responsiveness, or inability to scale. Finding out root causes of why the business might suffer under certain circumstances (like peak festival times on online stores, for example) goes a long way to produce an ROI on the Site24x7 cost.

Speaking of cost, it’s worth noting that, as you might expect from a fully cloud-based SaaS, the prices are reasonable and come in an array of well-priced tiers. Within a tier (ranging from free, to $225 per month) there’s also the option to buy add-ons, perhaps for more ‘synthetic’ web transactions or bundles of real-user tests.

There’s specific ability to monitor and oversee API connections (handy for any platforms that interconnect or are in use by RPA), plus literally dozens of ways in which remote services can be kept under a watchful eye. So, if your organization relies on Amazon stacks or Azure hosting, then there will be monitors and checks on (for instance) lambda functions, EC2 log analysis, and so on. Everything is pulled into the same (customizable) dashboards as every other monitoring feature, and automatable reports and stats can be assembled with ease, to show how performance varies over time – handy if you work under, or offer, KPIs.

For DevOps teams working even with the most cutting-edge technology (like cloud-based container platforms), there are specific tools to see how an individual or grouped microservices perform, in real time, and this can give significant insight into improving procedures, ensuring better app performance, and faster production-to-live times.

There are webhooks and out-of-the-box integrations, so the Site24x7 solution is interoperable with, for instance, existing ticket management systems or communications platforms that send out alerts or publish system status updates.

From mission-critical (and security sensitive) DNS service viability, into a simple ping to a test server’s nearest switch, the Site24x7 platform offers a massively powerful and – this is critical – business-centric approach to IT monitoring. There are very few areas in any business or organization today that aren’t at least partly dependent on IT systems’ uptime and ability to perform according to business needs. Isn’t it time you got some significant oversight into IT, and therefore the basis for the entire business?

Speak to a representative from Site24x7 today, to find out which of the pricing tiers and hundreds of options will suit your needs best, or sign up for a trial plan to test the waters.