If we have various tools to monitor many things is our business, then it should logically follow that we should monitor our applications as well. Current Python application environments can be complicated, involving many discrete components that affect the user’s overall experience. Due to this, it necessary to create a Python application performance monitoring tool that lets you get notified if performance issues arise and to have those metrics available for proactively solving slow points and bottlenecks before they can impact the end-user.
We’ll be explaining the best means of making sure that your environment is monitored effectively.
Review Your Environment
Since you’ve indeed recognized the business goals of your application, we can jump into the technical details. We are detailing a list for you of every critical element within the environment of the application.
Depending on the way your environment is designed, the following list can vary widely. For instance, a cloud-native app is exceptionally different than a legacy monolithic app hosted on an in-house data center.
Speaking in general terms, it’s best to incorporate most, if not all, of the following elements in your evaluation:
- Networking
- Hardware
- Application
- Host (or OS/Guest OS)
- Availability/Synthetic Transaction Monitoring
- Database
- End User Experience Monitoring
Depending on the architecture of your data structure, you may also be required to implement things such as storage, virtualization, caching or containerization.
Lastly, it’s crucial to look at the external structure of your app’s environment. Does your app need any third party components to function? Is your environment for e-commerce communicating with files or fulfillment positioned in your company’s data center which is operated by another team? You may have the ability to monitor these auxiliary applications directly, but it’s vital to consider them for it to be efficient.
Identify Tools
As soon as you’ve distinguished which elements are essential in ensuring that the Python application can serve its business purpose, we can start to identify tools that can help us meet our monitoring goals. But there aren’t too many platforms out there for monitoring each necessary part of your application. With that being said, there continues to be a lot of value with using one pane of glass for easy monitoring, reporting and alerting. It’s essential to think about the value that just one pane of glass brings to the table as you’re evaluating trade-offs and tools that you’re willing to execute.
Furthermore, you might be willing to leave some of the end-user experience monitoring to a third party if you’re evaluating an application that’s not cloud-based and only answering API calls or serving internal users.