Serverless Monitoring Using AWS and Azure

A look at our Serverless monitoring solution (Magnetar Monitor) we designed, coded and deployed using Amazon Web Services and Azure DevOps.

What is Serverless computing?

To begin Serverless computing is a method of providing backend services on an as-used basis. A Serverless provider allows Magnetar to write and deploy code without the hassle of worrying about the underlying infrastructure. This means we write code, which can be version controlled and tested and deployed using tools such as Azure DevOps.

Why we did this?

The why is simple, we wanted a solution that was not off the shelf with limitations but was extensible that would enable us to cater for all our customers unique situations and requirements. By building the tool in house it gave us the control and capability to decide the direction and its features. The Vision was to have a tool that would proactively monitor endpoints in a business and look for signs of health and performance issues, this information is then collated and can be processed to help the business make decisions on potential hardware upgrades or replacements. 

The Advantages

• Serverless applications are scaled on demand based on the number of resources required to handle the requests
• Security updates are handled for us by the vendors, Microsoft and Amazon.
• Every other technical detail is handled by the cloud providers in question so that we can focus more on core maintenance and feature updates
• Faster deployment cycle run via an orchestration layer
• Most importantly, paying for the exact resources used, as server management is handled on our behalf by Microsoft and Amazon

Our Approach

We looked at what we thought would be the best fit for this type of solution. We focused on delivering this application with the following in mind

Security – To make sure that the agent running on the endpoint will be able to securely connect to the service and no expose any risks.

Automation – Focusing on delivery through automation meant we are able to introduce additional due diligence and standards. 

Notifications – These are key, giving customers weekly summary emails so they can have a holistic view of their IT estate. We get notified of issues first and this enables us to get on to it without interrupting the business and allow you to keep working.

Scalability – This application had to be able to grow on demand without any architectural changes required and be able to handle any workload.

Cost – Cost efficiency was vital so that we could gift this product in all of our support services at no extra cost to our customers – forever.

Magnetar provides this functionality to all of our customers as part of our mission to keep IT working so that you can focus on your business.  

Drop us a message and we will contact you to learn more about you and your businesses.