Workshop Summary:
How to Monitor Web Applications
“Watching it” - a workshop/tutorial on the state of web monitoring, including web analytics, synthetic testing, and how to build monitor-ability (is that a word? ;-)) into applications.
There are lots of free or small-fee tools (Google Analytics, iPerceptions, Getclicky, Crazyegg, Clicktale) and some big ones (Omniture, Coradiant [disclaimer -- I used to work there!], Tealeaf, Keynote/Gomez) to look at.
Folks who run web apps need to know four things:
- What did users do?
- Could they do it?
- How did they go about it?
- Why did they do it in the first place?
But many people build an app without thinking about watching it once it's live. This results in two big problems: First, they don't know whether it's doing what they wanted, which is the key to improving it. And second, making it ready to watch can be a pain after the fact, which is costly and time consuming.
Putting monitoring into an app isn't just a technology question. More and more business decisions are based on this stuff because it's tied back to outcomes (did someone buy?) and contracts (did I deliver the service level they paid for?) so this isn't simply a technical issue these days.
Alistair Croll - Bio:
Alistair covers emerging web technologies, networking, and online applications. Prior to Bitcurrent, Alistair co-founded Coradiant, a leader in online user monitoring, as well as research firm Networkshop. He has held product management positions with 3Com Corporation, Primary Access, and Eicon Technology. Alistair contributes to industry events such as Interop and Web2Expo, and writes for a variety of online publications including GigaOm. He is the author of numerous articles on Internet performance and security, and co-author of Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Applications from Prentice-Hall.
