Today’s a big day at Checkly; we’re thrilled to announce that next to Browser and API checks we released a brand new check type to monitor your apps — say “Hello” to Heartbeat checks! In the realm of software, ensuring uninterrupted functionality is critical. While synthetic monitoring helps you discover user-facing problems early, keeping a close eye on the signals coming from your backend can be just as vital.

When we launched the Checkly CLI and Test Sessions last May, I wrote about the three pillars of monitoring as code. Code — write your monitoring checks as code and store them in version control. Test — test your checks against our global infrastructure and record test sessions. Deploy — deploy your checks from your local machine or CI to run them as monitors.

With Infrastructure as Code and service-oriented development, a modern web app can consist of countless moving parts developed by multiple development and DevOps teams. When establishing a high-velocity development environment, the main question is, "How can you guarantee a stellar end-user experience when lots of engineers are constantly pushing and deploying code?" Solid, easy-to-write, and clearly defined monitoring practices are the only answer to this question.

Earlier this week we shared some exciting news. Checkly has made its mark in not one, but two Gartner Hype Cycles reports. We're being recognized for something we're super passionate about - Monitoring as Code (MaC). This recognition comes in the Hype Cycle for Monitoring and Observability and the first ever Hype Cycle for Site Reliability Engineering. It's a big deal for us, and here's why it should matter to you, too.

I’m thrilled to announce that Gartner added Monitoring as Code (MaC) as an emerging practice into their Hype Cycles for Monitoring and Observability and Site Reliability Engineering. We are extremely hyped about this recognition and being listed as a vendor innovating in that space. Since we founded Checkly, our vision has been that monitoring should be set up as code and live in your repository; it must be open-source based and feel natural for developers.

One of the most effective ways to monitor a critical user flow on a website—or monitor the operation of a critical API that other applications depended on—is to adopt synthetic monitoring. Synthetic monitoring is an approach to monitoring websites and applications that simulates the actions of real users via browser automation. It mirrors the actions that a visitor may take on your website, say browsing an online shop, adding items to a shopping cart, and then checking out.