In the first part of this series, we explored how AppSignal can significantly enhance the robustness of Open edX platforms. We saw the challenges that Open edX faces as it scales and how AppSignal's features — including real-time performance monitoring and automated error tracking — provide essential tools for DevOps teams. Our walkthrough covered the initial setup and integration of AppSignal with Open edX, highlighting the immediate benefits of this powerful observability framework.

A friend of mine once had an annual appraisal where his manager blithely declared to him that his target for the next year was "to exceed his targets". Rather than spend the next year screaming silently whilst trapped inside an MC Esher-esque cycle of infinite recursion, my friend politely demurred and requested a more achievable goal, such as building a time machine out of jellybeans.

Keeping Kafka running at peak efficiency takes more than just a smooth setup. Fine-tuning Kafka producers and consumers is key to making sure every message is processed quickly and accurately. A little tweaking here and there can help you avoid bottlenecks, increase throughput, and keep your whole data pipeline running smoothly. In this guide, we’ll dive into practical tips for configuring producers and consumers for maximum efficiency.

A common pattern when building Grafana dashboards is to represent data for many items at once, such as simultaneously monitoring hundreds of servers. But what if there’s a problem with one of those servers? You’d want the ability to quickly identify that single server, and drill into the details without noise from all the other systems. In Grafana, dashboard variables are a great way to filter data and focus on the information that’s most important to you.

Here’s your go-to kubectl commands cheat sheet! Jump into Kubernetes management with these handy commands and make your life easier.

Infrastructure monitoring has evolved into a critical component of modern distributed systems, driving organizations to explore robust Zabbix alternatives. While Zabbix has served as a cornerstone of traditional monitoring, today's microservices and cloud-native architectures demand different approaches. The landscape of Zabbix alternatives has matured considerably, offering specialized solutions for various monitoring scenarios.

OpsRamp, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, updated its state of the MSP market survey for the first time in two years with some surprising results. The survey was the largest of its kind with more than 600 participants across three geographic regions and 24 countries.

Today’s IT and security environments have gone from “big” to “massive” in just a decade or two—endpoints have practically exploded (think hundreds of thousands of servers, not just a hundred). Add in a dizzying array of data types and vendors, and what do you get? A whole lot of chaos. So why, oh why, does agent management still feel like it’s stuck in the early 2000s?

“Elevated.” That’s the word often used to describe the ideal modern shopping experience. “Convenient” is another. I think they’re often one in the same. It doesn’t matter if you’re an operations manager for a c-store, big box store or a luxury boutique, your customers will never rate the shopping experience with your brand as “elevated” if they don’t find it convenient in some way.

Balancing cost, performance, and security in cloud infrastructure is challenging, but cloud-mature companies are proving it’s possible to optimize without compromise — here’s how they do it.