IT Heroes: Resilience Amidst
CrowdStrike Chaos 🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️

ObserCrew, last week's global CrowdStrike outage was a stark reminder of the fragility of our digital infrastructure. 😱 The incident, triggered by a faulty Windows update, wreaked havoc across industries, grounding flights, disrupting healthcare, and crippling businesses. 🛫🏥💼

As the world grappled with the fallout, IT support and SRE teams worked tirelessly to restore systems. 💪 Their dedication and expertise were instrumental in minimising the impact and getting us back online.

We owe them a debt of gratitude for their resilience and commitment. 🙏

 🤔💪A few key takeaways:

1. Monocultures are risky. Relying on a single system (like Windows) is asking for trouble.⚠️

2. Quality assurance is a must. How did this slip through the cracks at CrowdStrike?✅

3. Staged rollouts are crucial. Gradual updates help catch problems before they spiral.📈

4. Comprehensive update management and pre-deployment testing are critical.🚨

5. Hybrid/multi-cloud strategies and geo-distribution boost resilience. 🌈

While the blame game is tempting, the focus should be on learning and improving. 🤔 
We can build more resilient systems that withstand future challenges by implementing best practices and continuously assessing our infrastructure. 🏗️💪
Thank you to all the IT heroes who worked around the clock to resolve the crisis. 🙌 Your efforts kept the digital world spinning in the face of adversity.

🌍🔄Let's use this experience as a catalyst for positive change and work together to create a more resilient future. 🚀🔮

Now, to the cool to the stuff you are becoming accustomed to:

• Middleware's enhanced UI simplifies complex system monitoring

• Cloud Canaries' AI-driven tools disrupt traditional monitoring approaches

• Logz.io's Explore UI streamlines log analysis with an intuitive interface

  and

• Experts discuss evolving SLOs and effective data aggregation strategies

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

1. Middleware's latest Observability platform update has me intrigued. The enhanced UI and expanded capabilities sound promising for simplifying complex system monitoring. I'm curious to see how it compares to other players in the market. What features are you most excited about?

2. Netscout's expansion into digital edge Observability is a smart move. As more computing shifts to the edge, visibility into those environments becomes crucial. I wonder how this will impact traditional data centre monitoring strategies. Are any of you planning to adopt edge Observability solutions?

3. SolarWinds' recent accolades highlight its strength in IT management. While its past security issues gave me pause, seeing it recognised for powerful solutions is good. I'm cautiously optimistic about its future offerings. What's your take on SolarWinds' comeback story?

WHAT TO WATCH

This article on the looming data Observability crisis really got me thinking. As data volumes explode, ensuring data quality and reliability becomes increasingly challenging. I agree that automation and AI will be key to scaling Observability. How are you tackling data Observability in your organisations?

MARKET NEWS

Cloud Canaries' intelligence sounds like a game-changer for proactive issue detection. Using AI to identify potential problems before they impact users could significantly improve system reliability. I'm eager to see how this disrupts traditional monitoring approaches. Does anyone have experience with similar AI-driven tools?

Datadog's upcoming earnings call has the market buzzing. As a major player in the Observability world, their financial performance often reflects broader industry trends. I'll be tuning in to gauge the health of the Observability market and get insights into Datadog's future plans. Will you be listening?

LATEST PRODUCT UPDATES

1. Logz.io's new Explore UI for its Open 360 Observability platform looks slick! The faster, more intuitive interface could make log analysis a breeze. I'm a fan of their open-source approach. Kudos to the Logz.io team for prioritizing user experience.

2. Sentry's mobile session replay open beta has me excited. Seeing user sessions in action could revolutionize mobile app debugging. I love that it's free for early adopters. Are any mobile developers out there planning to give it a try? Let us know how it goes!

3. ScienceLogic's Skylar AI suite sounds impressive. Harnessing generative AI and unsupervised machine learning for IT operations could be transformative. The human-in-the-loop approach is smart. I'm curious about the learning curve for adopting such advanced AI capabilities.

SECURITY AWARENESS IN OBSERVABILITY

Observo AI-powered Observability pipeline tackles a critical challenge - ensuring data privacy and security while enabling Observability. Their approach of using AI to redact sensitive info is clever. As privacy regulations tighten, solutions like this will be essential. How do you balance Observability and data protection?

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LEVEL UP

🍷At the recent Observability Engineering meetup, Alex discussed evolving Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for the GCE Compute API, including managing low-QPS and effective data aggregation strategies for improved leadership visibility and practical system maintenance and enhancement tips.

This video from Kubetrain caught my eye as it demonstrates how to set up the Otel demo app with Grafana alloy with some dashboard setup explanation.📝🔍

EXPERT VOICES

Insightful video panel discussion on the evolving Observability needs of modern apps. Key themes: the importance of real-time debugging, the challenges of microservices architectures, and the role of AI/ML. Featuring thought leaders from Lightrun, Akeyless, Rookout, PagerDuty, and Komodor. A must-watch for anyone navigating the complexities of modern app Observability.

Gregg Ostrowski, CEO of AppD, emphasises the importance of business risk Observability as apps become more complex. He shares strategies for implementing risk Observability and offers valuable guidance for aligning Observability with business outcomes.

Excellent guide on leveraging metadata for full Observability by Dotan Horovits, Principal Developer Advocate at Logz.io and CNCF Ambassador. Dotan explains how metadata enriches Observability data, enabling deeper insights. Packed with practical examples and best practices. A valuable resource for anyone looking to level up their Observability game.

TOOLS FOR TECH LEADERS

In a fascinating post by SRE community Legand, Ricardo Castro draws parallels between teamwork in software development and football. Ricardo, a tech leader passionate about sports, shares insights on communication, collaboration, and adaptability. A unique perspective that resonates with anyone leading software teams. Thanks for the wisdom, Ricardo!. 🚀👥

WHAT’S ON MY MIND

This week and 🌟 before the recent Crowdstrike meltdown, I felt truly blessed to have a meaningful conversation with Dotan Horovits, a stalwart for our CNCF and Observability community; we spoke at length about concepts and the way forward for our community.

I'm still researching my open-source article, which is evolving into a three-part series. The first instalment will be published next week, so keep watching!

Guess what? We've hit a milestone of 300 technologists on our mailing list! 🎉 A massive thank you is coming for all of you later this week.

On a personal note, I can't do this without you all! Your continued engagement is why I do this, so let’s find fellow super geeks who are as passionate as we are and share this newsletter with them.

Much 😍,
Al