The market for Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and infrastructure monitoring tools is booming, with revenue expected to reach $11.9 billion by 2027. This growth highlights the growing demand for effective monitoring solutions to support businesses’ digital transformation initiatives.
As organizations migrate to the cloud, ensuring optimal performance, high availability, and robust security is essential. In turn, cloud infrastructure monitoring has never been more critical. By the end of this guide, you will have a solid understanding of cloud infrastructure monitoring and how it can help you optimize your cloud-based applications and services.
Table of Contents
Definition of Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring
In the context of cloud-based technology, cloud infrastructure monitoring tracks and manages the performance, availability, and security of various components within a cloud environment. These components can include virtual machines, databases, storage, networking, and more.
The demand for cloud infrastructure monitoring services has been steadily increasing. According to recent data, cloud infrastructure services expenditures grew by 23% year on year in Q4 of 2022, totaling $65.8 billion. Rising costs and inflation rates are contributing to this growth.
Types of Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring Platforms
Cloud infrastructure monitoring platforms can be categorized into three main types:
- Agent-Based Monitoring Tools: These tools deploy lightweight agents on each monitored resource to collect data directly from the system. Examples include New Relic and Datadog.
- Agentless Monitoring Tools: Relying on APIs and external data sources, these cloud-based tools gather information without requiring agents to be installed on monitored resources. Examples include Prometheus and Zabbix.
- Hybrid Solutions: Some platforms combine agent-based and agentless approaches to offer flexibility and meet the specific needs of different environments.
Benefits of Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring
By leveraging effective cloud infrastructure monitoring tools and practices, you can reap the following benefits:
1. Proactive Issue Detection: Proactive issue detection allows IT teams to identify and address potential problems before they escalate, preventing disruptions and downtime.
2. Resource Optimization: Optimizing resource allocation can enhance efficiency and reduce costs by ensuring that resources are used effectively and avoiding unnecessary expenses.
3. Compliance and Security: Protecting sensitive data from unauthorized access, breaches, and leaks is a top priority for many organizations. Compliance with industry regulations, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS, is crucial to avoid fines and legal consequences.
Key Metrics for Monitoring Cloud Infrastructure
Cloud infrastructure monitoring is essential for ensuring the optimal performance, security, and efficiency of your cloud-based applications and services.
1. Resource Utilization: Tracks how effectively your cloud resources are being used.
Key Metrics:
- CPU Usage: High CPU utilization can indicate that your applications are demanding more processing power than is available. This can lead to performance bottlenecks and slow response times.
- Memory (RAM) Usage: Insufficient memory can cause applications to crash or slow down. Monitoring memory usage helps ensure that your applications have enough resources to operate efficiently.
- Disk I/O: Tracking disk I/O operations (read and write) helps identify potential performance bottlenecks and ensure that your storage is configured appropriately.
- Network Bandwidth: Monitoring network bandwidth usage helps ensure that your applications have enough bandwidth to transfer data efficiently.
2. Latency and Response Time: Latency is the time it takes for a request to travel from the client to the server and back. It directly impacts user experience and can affect the overall performance of cloud-based applications.
Key Metrics:
- Round-Trip Time (RTT): Measures the total time it takes for a packet of data to travel from the client to the server and back.
- Service Response Time: Measures how quickly services, such as APIs or web applications, respond to user requests.
3. Availability and Uptime: Availability refers to the percentage of time a service or resource is accessible and operational.
Key Metrics:
- Uptime: The percentage of time a system is available and operational.
- Downtime: The periods when a system is unavailable due to maintenance, failures, or other issues.
4. Security Metrics: Monitoring security metrics helps prevent unauthorized access and detect anomalies.
Key Metrics:
- Access Logs: Review access logs to track who has accessed your cloud resources and when. This can help identify unauthorized access attempts or suspicious activity.
- Authentication Failures: Monitor the number of failed authentication attempts to detect potential brute-force attacks or compromised credentials.
- Potential Threats: Use security monitoring tools to detect suspicious activity patterns, such as unusual network traffic or unauthorized access attempts.
TOP 15 Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring Platforms
Choosing the right cloud infrastructure monitoring platform is essential for ensuring the performance, security, and reliability of your cloud-based applications. Here are 15 of the top platforms to consider:
1. Amazon CloudWatch:
Amazon CloudWatch is a powerful cloud infrastructure monitoring tool that provides a comprehensive view of your AWS resources. It allows you to collect, analyze, and act on metrics from over 70 AWS services, including EC2, DynamoDB, S3, ECS, Lambda, and API Gateway.
Key Features:
- Comprehensive Metrics Collection: Monitor CPU utilization, network traffic, disk I/O, and custom application-specific metrics.
- Unified View and Dashboards: Gain a holistic view of your operational health by aggregating logs, metrics, and events. Create custom dashboards to visualize critical data points.
- Alarms and Anomaly Detection: Set up alarms to be notified when metrics exceed or fall below predefined thresholds. Trigger automated actions, such as auto-scaling or sending notifications, to address potential issues proactively.
Pros: | Cons: |
AWS-Native Integration: CloudWatch is deeply integrated into the AWS ecosystem, simplifying resource allocation and auto-scaling within AWS. Free Tier and Pay-as-You-Go Pricing: Enjoy a free tier for basic monitoring features and pay only for what you use, making it a cost-effective solution. Logs and Insights: CloudWatch Logs provides centralized log storage and analysis, enabling you to gain valuable insights from log data. | UI Complexity: Some users may find the CloudWatch user interface to be complex and challenging to navigate. Scalability Considerations: While CloudWatch can handle most use cases, extremely large-scale environments may require additional solutions. Pricing: The pricing for CloudWatch varies by region, and usage-based billing applies. |
Pricing: Offers 2 tiers:
- Free Tier: Includes basic monitoring features such as metrics, dashboards, and alarms, with limitations on usage.
- Paid Tier: Pay-as-you-go pricing for advanced features and increased usage.
2. Google Cloud Monitoring:
Google Cloud Monitoring is a comprehensive cloud infrastructure monitoring solution that provides visibility into the behavior, health, and performance of your applications and other Google Cloud services. It automatically collects and stores performance information, allowing you to identify and address potential issues proactively.
Key Features:
- Comprehensive Monitoring: Monitor a wide range of metrics, including resource utilization, latency, and error rates.
- Alerts and Notifications: Set up custom alerts to be notified of critical issues and trends.
- Proactive Monitoring and Validation: Use synthetic monitors to test the availability and performance of your applications and services.
Pros: | Cons: |
Ease of Use: Google Cloud Monitoring has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, making it accessible to users of all levels. Integration with Other Google Cloud Services: The platform seamlessly integrates with other Google Cloud services, simplifying setup and configuration. Flexible Pricing: Google Cloud Monitoring offers a free tier for basic usage and a pay-as-you-go pricing model for more advanced features. | Multi-Cloud Monitoring Coverage: While Google Cloud Monitoring supports multi-cloud monitoring, its coverage may not be as extensive as specialized cross-cloud monitoring tools. Cost: For large-scale deployments, the cost of Google Cloud Monitoring can be significant, especially if you are using advanced features and high volumes of data. |
Pricing: Google Cloud offers flexible pricing options to meet your specific needs:
- Free Tier: Start with $300 in free credits to explore and test Google Cloud services. Some products are always free with monthly usage limits.
- Pay-as-You-Go: Pay only for the resources you use, with no upfront fees or termination charges.
- Committed Use Discounts: Receive discounts for long-term commitments to specific resources.
- Spot Virtual Machines (VMs): Access short-term, cost-effective VMs for specific workloads.
3. Azure Monitor:
Azure Monitor is a powerful monitoring tool that provides a comprehensive view of your Azure resources. It allows you to collect and analyze metrics and logs, set up alerts, and gain insights into the performance and health of your applications.
Key Features:
- Metrics and Logs: Collect and analyze performance data from various Azure resources, including virtual machines, databases, and storage accounts. Metrics provide insights into resource utilization, latency, and more, while logs offer detailed information about operational events and errors.
- Alerts and Notifications: Create custom alerts to be notified of critical issues and trends. Receive notifications via email, SMS, or integrated services like PagerDuty or Slack.
- Built-in Analysis Features: Use the Overview Page to quickly assess resource performance, the Metrics Explorer to interactively work with metric data, and Log Analytics to analyze log data using Kusto Query Language (KQL).
Pros: | Cons: |
Scalability and Integration: Azure Monitor is fully integrated within the Microsoft ecosystem, making it easy to use and manage. Ease of Use and Reliability: Azure Monitor is known for its user-friendly interface and reliability. Minimal Training Required: Basic features can be used with minimal training, making it accessible to users of all levels. | Multi-Cloud Monitoring Coverage: While Azure Monitor supports multi-cloud monitoring, its coverage may not be as extensive as specialized cross-cloud monitoring tools. Costs: For large-scale deployments, costs can accumulate due to data ingestion, retention, and advanced monitoring features. |
Pricing: Pay-as-you-go at $0.10 per GB.
4. Datadog:
Datadog is a popular cloud-based monitoring platform that offers a unified view of your infrastructure, applications, and security metrics. It is a valuable tool for development teams, IT operations, security engineers, and business users who need to monitor and optimize their cloud environments.
Key Features:
- Unified Observability: Datadog integrates and automates infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring (APM), and log management, providing a comprehensive view of your entire technology stack.
- Real-Time Monitoring and Vulnerability Scans: Datadog excels at real-time monitoring of logs and vulnerability scans, helping to safeguard your servers and cloud resources.
- Comprehensive Data Collection: Datadog collects and analyzes data from a wide range of sources, including web servers, Amazon EC2, NoSQL databases, StatsD, and SQL databases.
Pros: | Cons: |
Unified View: Datadog provides a unified view of your entire technology stack, making it easier to identify and address issues. Real-Time Monitoring: Datadog offers real-time monitoring of logs and vulnerability scans, enabling you to detect and respond to threats quickly. Comprehensive Data Collection: Datadog collects data from a wide range of sources, providing you with a comprehensive view of your infrastructure. | Pricing: Datadog offers different pricing tiers, with higher tiers providing additional features and capabilities. Scaling Challenge: scaling it to handle large and complex environments can sometimes pose challenges |
Pricing: Datadog offers different pricing tiers:
- Free: Basic features.
- Pro: $15 per host per month.
- Enterprise: $23 per host per month.
5. New Relic:
New Relic is a powerful cloud infrastructure monitoring platform that provides a unified view of your entire technology stack, enabling you to monitor application performance, infrastructure health, and security.
Key Features:
- Application Performance Monitoring (APM): Monitor your applications in real time to identify and troubleshoot performance issues.
- Browser Monitoring: Track real-user patterns and page performance to optimize the user experience.
- Business Observability: Gain insights into how different components of your technology stack impact business outcomes.
- Mobile Monitoring: Monitor the performance of your mobile applications to ensure a smooth user experience.
- Infrastructure Monitoring: Monitor your entire infrastructure stack, including servers, databases, and networks.
Pros: | Cons: |
Unified Platform: New Relic provides a single platform for accessing all of your monitoring data, making it easy to get a comprehensive view of your technology stack. Telemetry Data Platform: New Relic securely ingests metrics, events, logs, and traces, providing you with a powerful data platform for analysis. Powerful Analysis Tools: New Relic offers a range of powerful analysis tools that help you gain deep insights into your data. | Historical Data Retention: New Relic’s historical data retention is limited to three months. Limited Integrations: While New Relic offers several integrations, it may lag behind some competitors in terms of third-party tool support. Resource Intensiveness: On smaller deployments, New Relic might consume more system resources than desired, impacting overall performance. |
- Pricing: New Relic offers a free tier for basic usage, but pricing can increase for larger organizations or those with high data volumes
- New Relic offers transparent pricing based on usage:
- Data Ingest: 100 GB of free data ingest per month, with additional data charged at $0.35/GB.
- User Types: Basic (free), Core, and Full Platform.
- Compute Option: Pay for what your users access (no user fee).
6. Zabbix:
Zabbix is a popular open-source monitoring platform that offers a flexible and customizable approach to monitoring your cloud infrastructure. One of its key features is its agentless architecture, which eliminates the need to install agents on monitored devices.
Key Features:
- Agentless Approach: Zabbix uses standard protocols like SNMP, ICMP, and IPMI to collect data directly from monitored devices, simplifying deployment and reducing overhead.
- Rich Customization and Flexibility: Zabbix allows you to create custom templates, triggers, and actions to tailor monitoring to your specific needs.
- Alerting and Reporting: Set up alerts based on predefined thresholds and generate detailed reports for analysis and decision-making.
Pros: | Cons: |
Detailed Analytics: Zabbix provides in-depth insights into network performance, allowing you to monitor CPU utilization, network traffic, application response times, and other key metrics. Customization Powerhouse: Zabbix’s flexibility allows you to adapt it to diverse network configurations and fine-tune monitoring rules and visualization. | Web Scenarios for HTTP Monitoring: Some users find that configuring web scenarios (for monitoring HTTP endpoints) isn’t straightforward. |
Pricing:
- Zabbix is open-source and free to use. Paid support options are available for enterprise-level needs.
- Zabbix is open-source and free to use.
- Paid support options are available for enterprise-level needs.
7. Dynatrace:
Dynatrace is a leading observability cloud infrastructure monitoring platform that leverages AI to provide deep insights into the performance, behavior, and costs of your AI-powered applications.
Key Features:
- AI Observability: Understand the behavior, performance, and cost of your AI models and services, gaining a comprehensive view of your AI applications.
- Cost Optimization: Gain visibility into the costs associated with each layer of your AI stack, enabling you to optimize resource allocation and improve efficiency.
- Improved Service Quality: Investigate prompt engineering possibilities and create better-designed retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines to reduce hallucination and ensure reliable AI-backed services.
- Service Reliability: Monitor the performance of your AI models at scale to detect emerging degradation and prevent costly outages.
Pros: | Cons: |
Optimized Customer Experiences: Dynatrace helps you deliver reliable and high-performing AI-backed services, improving customer satisfaction. Full AI Stack Visibility: Gain a deep understanding of the costs and performance of your AI models and infrastructure. Predictive Orchestrations: Dynatrace’s predictive orchestrations help you ensure the reliability of your AI services. | Maintenance Window Configuration Challenges: Some users have reported difficulties with time zones in reports and maintenance window configurations. Pricing: Dynatrace’s pricing is based on usage, and it may be more expensive for smaller teams. |
Pricing:
- 15 Day Free Trial
- While it may be on the higher side for smaller teams, the value it provides justifies the investment.
8. SolarWinds:
SolarWinds is a popular choice for network and infrastructure monitoring, offering a comprehensive set of features to help you manage and optimize your IT environment.
Key Features:
- Comprehensive Network Monitoring: Monitor routers, switches, firewalls, servers, and other network devices to ensure optimal performance and identify potential issues.
- Customizable Thresholds and Alerts: Set custom thresholds for various metrics and receive alerts when thresholds are breached, allowing you to proactively address problems.
- Auto Network Discovery: SolarWinds NPM automatically discovers devices on your network, simplifying setup and ongoing maintenance.
Pros: | Cons: |
Scalability and Reliability: SolarWinds NPM is suitable for large organizations with thousands of devices, providing reliable monitoring across geographically dispersed sites. Unified Toolbox: SolarWinds brings together a suite of network monitoring tools into a single platform, providing a comprehensive view of your IT infrastructure. | Real-Time Analytics: SolarWinds excels in data collection but falls short in real-time analytics. Reporting Capabilities: While SolarWinds provides basic reporting, some users feel that its reporting capabilities could be more robust. Pricing: SolarWinds offers transparent pricing, but the cost may be higher for smaller teams. |
Pricing:
- Free trial available, Fully functional for 30 days
- List Price: $4,079.99.
9. Splunk:
Splunk is a leading data analytics cloud infrastructure monitoring platform that provides a unified view of your entire IT environment, including logs, metrics, and events. It offers a wide range of features for data ingestion, analysis, visualization, and security.
Key Features:
- Data Ingestion and Transformation: Splunk can ingest data from virtually any source, including logs, metrics, and events. It also provides powerful data transformation capabilities to prepare data for analysis.
- Correlation Search and Investigation: Splunk’s advanced search capabilities allow you to quickly locate and analyze relevant data points, even across large datasets. This enables you to investigate incidents, identify trends, and gain insights into your data.
- Visualization and Reporting: Splunk offers a variety of visualization options, including dashboards, charts, and reports. This allows you to easily visualize and communicate your data insights to stakeholders.
- Machine Learning and Analytics: Splunk leverages machine learning and advanced analytics to identify patterns, anomalies, and potential threats in real time. This helps you to proactively identify and address issues before they impact your business.
Pros: | Cons: |
Real-Time Data Processing: Splunk can process data in real time, enabling you to detect and respond to incidents quickly. Scalable Architecture: Splunk is designed to handle massive data volumes, making it suitable for large-scale deployments. Powerful Analytics: Splunk’s advanced analytics capabilities provide a wide range of options for data analysis and visualization. | Pricing: Splunk offers a variety of pricing options, but it can be expensive for smaller teams. |
Pricing: Can be as high as $1800/GB.
10. AppDynamics:
AppDynamics is a leading application performance monitoring (APM) platform that provides deep insights into the behavior and performance of your applications.
Key Features:
- Application Performance Monitoring: Monitor your applications in real time to identify and troubleshoot performance issues.
- Business Context: Understand how application performance impacts your business outcomes and align your technology strategy with your business priorities.
- Real-Time Insights: Gain real-time visibility into the health of your applications, detecting bottlenecks and anomalies early.
Pros: | Cons: |
Unified Observability: AppDynamics provides a unified platform for APM, infrastructure monitoring, and business observability, giving you a comprehensive view of your technology stack. Predictive Analytics: Leverage AI-driven insights to predict and prevent performance issues, ensuring optimal application performance. | Pricing: Deploying Splunk can become expensive, especially when managing large data volumes. Licensing costs are based on data ingestion, and optimizing searches for speed can be tricky.. |
Pricing:
- The AppDynamics Trial license is available free of charge for a 30-day period.
- $6/month per CPU Core billed annually.
11. LogicMonitor:
LogicMonitor is a comprehensive observability platform that provides a unified view of your entire technology stack, enabling you to gain insights into the performance, health, and security of your applications and infrastructure.
Key Features:
- Hybrid Observability: LogicMonitor’s SaaS-based platform, LM Envision, offers unified observability across on-premises and multi-cloud environments, providing you with a comprehensive view of your IT operations.
- Customizable Dashboards and AI-Driven Insights: Create custom dashboards to visualize your data and leverage LogicMonitor’s AI capabilities to detect patterns, anomalies, and correlations in your monitoring data.
- Customer-Centric Approach: LogicMonitor is committed to providing exceptional customer service and value. The company operates with integrity, esteems diversity, and treats everyone fairly and with respect.
Pros: | Cons: |
Extensive Integrations and Customizability: LogicMonitor integrates with a wide range of data sources, making it adaptable to diverse environments. You can also customize dashboards and alerts to meet your specific needs. AI-Driven Insights: LogicMonitor’s AI capabilities provide valuable insights into your data, helping you to identify and address potential issues proactively. | Depth of Reporting: While LogicMonitor offers comprehensive reporting, some users may find that the depth of reporting could be improved. |
Pricing:
- Pricing starts at $22 per resource per month.
- Log intelligence pricing:
- $4 USD per GB/month for 30-day retention.
- $7 USD per GB/month for yearly retention.
- $14 USD per GB/month for unlimited retention.
12. Sumo Logic:
Sumo Logic is a powerful cloud-native platform that provides comprehensive log management and analytics capabilities. It is designed to help organizations process massive amounts of log data and gain valuable insights into the performance and security of their applications and infrastructure.
Key Features:
- Log Management and Centralized Logging: Sumo Logic allows you to collect, store, and analyze logs from various sources, providing a centralized view of your IT environment.
- SaaS-Based Analytics Platform: As a cloud-native platform, Sumo Logic offers top-tier log aggregation and parsing capabilities, making it easy to use and manage.
- Business Context and Observability: Sumo Logic helps you understand how application performance impacts business outcomes, allowing you to make data-driven decisions and improve your operations.
Pros: | Cons: |
Unified Observability: Sumo Logic provides a comprehensive view of your entire technology stack, enabling you to identify and address potential issues. Verified by Gartner Peer Insights: Sumo Logic has received positive reviews from real users, demonstrating its effectiveness and value. | Integration Challenges: While Sumo Logic integrates with various sources, ensuring seamless integration can sometimes be a consideration. Pricing: Sumo Logic offers transparent pricing, but the cost may be higher for larger organizations or those with high data volumes. |
Pricing:
3 tiers: Free, Essentials, Enterprise
13. Nagios:
Nagios is a popular open-source cloud infrastructure monitoring platform that provides a flexible and customizable approach to monitoring your IT infrastructure.
Key Features:
- Comprehensive Monitoring: Nagios allows you to monitor all mission-critical infrastructure components, from servers and networks to applications and databases.
- Agentless Approach: Nagios uses standard protocols to collect data directly from monitored devices, eliminating the need for agents and simplifying deployment.
- Alerting and Notifications: Set up alerts based on predefined thresholds and receive notifications via email, SMS, or other channels to be alerted of potential issues.
Pros: | Cons: |
Stability and Reliability: Nagios has a proven track record of reliability and has been used by organizations of all sizes to monitor critical systems. Active Community and Add-ons: Nagios benefits from a vibrant community that contributes to its development and provides a wide range of add-ons to enhance its capabilities. | Network Throughput Monitoring Limitations: Nagios primarily focuses on host and service monitoring. While it excels in tracking server health, it doesn’t directly monitor network throughput. |
Pricing:
- While Nagios Core is open-source and free, the commercial version, Nagios XI, offers additional features and support at a cost.
- Pricing starts at $1,995 USD for 100 Nodes for the standard version and $3,495 USD for enterprise.
14. Grafana:
Grafana is a popular open-source platform that provides a flexible and customizable way to visualize and analyze your data. It supports a wide range of data sources and offers a variety of features to help you gain insights into your applications and infrastructure.
Key Features:
- Flexible Data Sources: Grafana supports various data sources, including Prometheus, Graphite, Elasticsearch, InfluxDB, and more, allowing you to connect to your preferred backend systems.
- Customizable Dashboards: Create visually appealing dashboards with drag-and-drop panels to visualize your data in a way that is meaningful to you. Customize visualizations, alerts, and annotations to tailor the dashboards to your specific needs.
- Alerting and Notifications: Set up alerts based on predefined thresholds or complex conditions to be notified of critical issues and trends.
- Community and Plugins: Grafana has a large and active community that contributes to its development and offers a wide range of plugins to extend its functionality.
Pros: | Cons: |
Open Source and Cost-Effective: Grafana is open-source and offers a free tier, making it accessible to users of all budgets. Rich Visualization Options: Grafana provides a variety of visualization options, including heat maps, deployment markers, and multiple data source connectivity, allowing you to easily understand your data. Flexibility and Customization: Grafana is highly customizable, allowing you to tailor it to your specific needs and preferences. | Learning Curve: Like any powerful tool, Grafana may have a learning curve, especially for new users. Pricing: While the free tier is generous, the paid tiers can become more expensive for large-scale deployments. |
15. Sematext:
Sematext is a powerful cloud-native platform that offers a unified view of your entire technology stack, providing comprehensive monitoring for infrastructure, applications, and user behavior.
Key Features:
- All-in-One Solution: Sematext combines infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring, log management, real user monitoring, and synthetic monitoring into a single platform.
- SaaS-Based Analytics Platform: As a cloud-native platform, Sematext is easy to use and provides a seamless experience for collecting and analyzing data.
- Customizable Dashboards and Alerts: Create custom dashboards to visualize your data and set up alerts to be notified of critical issues.
Pros: | Cons: |
Flexible Pricing: Sematext offers flexible pricing options to meet your specific needs, allowing you to control costs and avoid overspending. Verified by Users: Sematext has received positive reviews from real users on platforms like G2 and Capterra, demonstrating its effectiveness and value. | Missing Features and Pricing Considerations: Some users have noted that Sematext lacks certain features they expected. Data Management and Setup Complexity: Managing data effectively can be challenging. Users have mentioned difficulties related to data management and setup. |
Pricing:
- Sematext offers various pricing levels:
- Logs: Starts at $0.00 per month for basic log management.
- Monitoring: Starts at $0.00 per month for infrastructure and application monitoring.
- Experience: Starts at $9.00 per month for real user monitoring.
- Synthetics: Starts at $5.00 per month for synthetic monitoring.
Best Practices for Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring
To effectively monitor your cloud infrastructure:
- Define clear objectives and KPIs.
- Use tagging and labeling to organize resources.
- Set up relevant alerts with appropriate severity levels and escalation policies.
- Regularly review metrics to identify trends, anomalies, and capacity planning needs.
Future Trends in Cloud Infrastructure Monitoring
As technology continues to evolve, cloud infrastructure monitoring will likely see the following trends:
- AIOps Integration: AI and ML will enhance monitoring capabilities, enabling proactive issue detection and automated remediation. At the moment, Nearly 66% of companies use AIOps tools for network and security operations. Gartner predicts that large enterprise exclusive use of AIOps and digital experience monitoring tools will rise from 5% in 2018 to 30% in 2023.
- Serverless Monitoring: Tools will adapt to monitor individual functions within serverless architectures and optimize performance. Container-based serverless platforms are on the rise, especially in Azure, with 76% year-over-year growth.
- Multi-Cloud Monitoring: 80% of organizations are actively using multiple public or private clouds, emphasizing the prevalence of multi-cloud environments. Unified dashboards and standardized metrics will facilitate cross-cloud monitoring and cost management.