For some time now, people have understood the importance of early warning systems, whether for detecting earthquakes and tsunamis, military defense, or business and financial crises. Why should service providers, especially those delivering software as a service (SaaS,) be any different? In a world where time is money and minutes mean millions, it is vital for organizations to keep a very close eye on the supply and delivery chain of their service to their end users, both business and consumer.

2021’s slew of Internet outages or disruptions show how connected and relatively fragile the Internet ecosystem is. Case in point: December’s trifecta of Amazon Web Services (AWS) outages, which really brought home the fact that no service is too big to fail: The reality is, the next outage is not if, but when, where, and for how long. Pretending they don’t exist or won’t happen is not only pointless but harmful to your business.