Author: Austin Guanzon

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Cloud Application Performance Monitoring: Strategies to Boost User Experience

The performance of cloud applications plays a big role in user experience. At the end of the day, we’re all looking for a smooth-running service that’s free from bugs and crashes. A slow-running app is a one-way street to frustrated users, but you can avoid this eventuality with Cloud Application Performance Monitoring (CAPM). 

CAPM is the process by which you track and manage the performance of cloud applications. It involves monitoring the key metrics that determine performance and taking measures to optimise where necessary. Overall, the goal is to achieve the best possible experience for all of your users. 

What is CAPM?

Cloud application performance management is achieved by monitoring important performance metrics so that any issues looming on the horizon are caught early. It helps you to maintain the best user experience possible and should be a key part of your customer orientation strategy.

Core Components of CAPM

Let’s take a look at the essential elements of CAPM: 

  • Real-time monitoring: Application performance is continuously tracked to pick up issues instantly, meaning no problem goes undetected. For instance, a live chat app relies heavily on real-time monitoring to ensure smooth and uninterrupted user interactions, making it crucial to address any performance issues immediately.
  • Alerts and notifications: You can set up alerts to notify you when performance metrics drop out from the acceptable range, so you’re always kept in the loop.
  • Root cause analysis: Knowing there is a problem is only half the story. Root cause analysis will also tell you what the underlying problem is. 
  • Performance optimisation: This is where you swing into action to make the changes needed to get your cloud application performance back on track.

CAPM vs. Traditional APM

If you’re familiar with application performance monitoring, you might be wondering if CAPM is really so different. However, they are distinct in a few ways. 

Environment Focus

Traditional APM typically applies to on-premises applications and, as the name suggests, CAPM focuses on cloud-based applications. What’s important about this differentiation is that on-premises applications need to be monitored within a static, controlled environment, whereas cloud applications require a dynamic environment that can change based on usage and demand.

Scalability

Cloud environments are scalable by nature, and CAPM is able to handle this. As user demand rises or drops, CAPM can likewise scale resources up and down, achieving optimal performance with minimum manual intervention. Meanwhile, traditional APM usually deals with fixed resources that need manual adjustments.

Integration

The transition from mainframe to cloud applications is an important consideration. CAPM integrates with cloud services and platforms to allow for comprehensive monitoring across different components within the cloud ecosystem. This provides a complete view of the performance of the application, whereas traditional APM tools are unlikely to offer the same level of integration with cloud-specific services, and are therefore less effective. 

Moreover, as CAPM integrates deeply with cloud services and platforms, it also expands the attack surface — the set of points where unauthorized access can occur. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that security measures are part of the performance monitoring process to protect against vulnerabilities that could be exploited through these additional points of exposure.

Resource Allocation

APM’s primary focus is on the application itself, and this rarely widens to the infrastructure around it. CAPM, on the other hand, not only monitors the application’s performance but keeps an eye on the underlying infrastructure and resources. Memory, CPU, and storage are all tracked to assess if they are being used efficiently.

Key Metrics in CAPM

The effectiveness of CAPM lies in closely monitoring the right metrics.

Response Time

How long is a user waiting for an application to respond to a request? Faster response times keep everything ticking over quickly and, most importantly, keep users happy. High response times point to performance bottlenecks, suggesting improvement might need to be made in database indexing strategies or in optimising server configurations to speed up retrieval times.

Error Rates

Keeping on top of the frequency of errors happening within the application will tell you where there are common problems that are damaging the user experience. If errors are happening a lot users are likely to get frustrated quickly, and you may lose their trust. As such, lowering error rates should be a top priority.

Request Rates

How is the application managing traffic? This metric will tell you the volume of user requests currently being handled, which makes sure the application scales as needed. As high request rates can put a strain on resources, causing slowdowns or even crashes, they need to be monitored to keep performance steady during peak times.

Application Availability

Measuring the accessibility of an application and the extent to which it’s operational shows you how consistent your service is. High availability is a must to make sure users know they can rely on the application to be there when they need it, whereas excessive downtime can damage that trust.

Strategies for Effective Cloud Application Performance Monitoring

Use these tactics for CAPM to work at maximum effectiveness.

Ensure Compatibility with Existing IT Infrastructure

Effective software development practices are crucial for integrating CAPM tools with existing IT infrastructure, ensuring that all systems operate cohesively and are aligned with business objectives.

Before you go live, conduct some tests to make sure everything is working well together and the data you’re capturing is accurate. If you have a team, provide them with adequate training. 

Managing Real-Time Monitoring and Alerts

When you are informed in real-time of high error rates or slow response times, you can fix issues before they snowball and cause big problems for users. Configure alerts for specific performance thresholds, so you or your team members get immediate notification if anything doesn’t look right. 

For example, if the average response time of an application is usually 200 milliseconds, a consistent response time of 500 milliseconds for more than five minutes would send an alert. Every alert should be integral to performance and actionable, so when one comes through, you know it’s important. 

Additionally, your thresholds should be precisely defined based on historical data to balance sensitivity and relevance. There should also be clear incident management protocols that kick in, in response to an alert, with assigned roles and documented procedures. Maintain DevOps best practices by regularly reviewing and adjusting thresholds to maintain the highest performance standards for your cloud application.

If you use a WordPress site for your business, incorporating a WordPress table plugin can help you effectively organize and display performance data in a clear and accessible manner.

Root Cause Analysis

Finding out the underlying cause of cloud application performance issues requires effective Root Cause Analysis (RCA). This way, you both fix the problem and stop it from happening again. One of the best techniques for identifying the root cause of an issue is log analysis, where you examine the logs to find errors and anomalies. 

Another effective technique is transaction tracing, which tracks the journey of a transaction through an application to discover where bottlenecks are occurring. Performance profiling is also useful, monitoring resource usage and revealing where the most resources are being consumed.  

CAPM tools have advanced features on their dashboards that provide real-time and historical data, so you can detect what may be a recurring theme or a one-off anomaly. With error tracking, you can capture in-depth information about errors, such as stack traces and user actions, which are integral for root cause diagnosis. 

Tools should also offer synthetic monitoring, which simulates user interactions to test performance issues without affecting real users. 

Optimise Application Responsiveness

You’re looking to optimise application responsiveness wherever possible to reduce latency, provide quicker user interactions, and prevent negative repercussions for users. Suppose, for example, high latency was occurring in a cloud-based CRM platform. This could slow down valuable tasks like sales discovery calls, leading to irritated users and missed opportunities. 

Combat slow load times by using content delivery networks (CDNs), employing efficient caching strategies, and optimising database queries. Improved performance will give users confidence that the application will always allow them to complete tasks without delay. 

Ensure Application Availability

Maintain high availability and reduce downtime by establishing redundancy and failover mechanisms. Redundancy involves duplicating all the critical components and systems so that if one fails, another can take over without disrupting service. For instance, cloud-based call centre software might use redundant servers to ensure continuous operation, even during hardware failures.

Failover mechanisms play a similar role, automatically redirecting traffic to backup systems when the primary system is unavailable. This is invaluable for applications that have a big impact on sales or customer service, where downtime can be seriously costly. 

There is also a benefit to adopting cloud-native practices like auto-scaling and load balancing. Auto-scaling adjusts resources in real-time based on demand and prevents the overloading of servers, while load balancing spreads the traffic evenly across servers, improving application availability. 

Remember, all these mechanisms should be tested regularly to make sure they are ready when a real problem arises.

The Future of Cloud Application Performance Monitoring

CAPM will continue to be an area that improves as technology evolves. The impact of generative AI has already made itself known, as AI and machine learning fuel predictive analytics in CAPM. This technology supports proactive performance management, discovering problems before they start to affect users. Edge computing allows for data to be processed close to the source, reducing latency and improving responsiveness.  

Transform User Experience with CAPM

Providing the best possible user experience for your cloud-based applications is a top priority for any developer, and cloud-based performance monitoring is, without a doubt, one of the best ways to make it a reality. 

CAPM gives you the heads up as soon as anything deviates from acceptable standards, so you can take action immediately. The visibility it gives you means no delays or bugs will go unnoticed and you can both fix issues promptly and understand how to stop them happening again. 

Altogether, it’s the ideal approach to keep your application working perfectly and your users satisfied and happy.

Austin Guanzon – Tier 1 Support Manager

Austin Guanzon is the Tier 1 Support Manager for Dialpad, the leading AI-powered customer intelligence platform. He is a customer retention and technical support expert, with experience at some of the largest tech service companies in the US.You can find him on LinkedIn.

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9 Best Security Practices For REST API Development

If you work in any area of application programming interface (API) development, you’ll know that there are always concerns. Will the software manage errors effectively? How will it cope with large datasets? The list seems endless at times. One major concern many developers focus on is the security threats their APIs may face. 

With the cost of cybercrime expected to reach $13.82 trillion by 2028, the issue of cybersecurity is very real. If you are developing REST APIs, what threats might you face, and how should you be tackling them? Should you have a checklist of best practices during development to minimize any potential threats?

What is REST API?

Security Practices For REST API

An application programming interface (API) is a list of protocols and definitions developers use when building application software. To define it simply, it’s a ‘contract’ between the application user and the application. You could also see it as a communication conduit that communicates a request and allows for an exchange of information and/or data.

REST API (you may also hear the term RESTful API) is an application programming interface developers utilize when working in the REST (representational state transfer) architecture that allows for communication between RESTful web services. 

REST API security threats

Security Practices For REST API

To paraphrase Sun Tzu, knowing your enemy is crucial. By knowing what cyber security threats (especially the most common ones) your REST API may face, you can better plan for how to prevent those threats. 

We’ve listed some of them below:

  • Denial of Service (DoS): When a DoS attack occurs, the system is overloaded by an enormous amount of messages sent by a cybercriminal. If your REST API experiences a successful DoS attack, then it could be rendered non-functional and accessed by the attackers. 
  • Injection attack: This attack can allow cybercriminals access to often sensitive data and information. The attacker embeds a dangerous code into unsecured programs, often SQL injection or cross-site scripting. 
  • Sensitive data exposure: If there is a lack of encryption at any point in how your API handles data, then it may be exposed to attack. When you consider that a lot of data (health details, credit card info, etc.) is highly confidential, unsecured data can be a major risk. 
  • Broken authentication: If you have inadequate or missing authentication, you are leaving your API and app open to a cyberattack. From passwords to JSON web tokens to API keys, this can be a major weak point if not tackled. 
  • Parameter tampering: If a cybercriminal manipulates the parameters that are exchanged between user and server, they can modify various data in the application such as prices, product quantities, and user credentials. This can pose a major risk to enterprise collaboration systems. 
  • Man in the Middle (MITM): As the name suggests, with this type of attack, the cybercriminal positions themselves between two systems and intercepts the communications. This allows them to alter or steal any confidential data. There are two stages to MITM attacks; interception and decryption.
  • Broken access control: Access control (or authorization) is how you limit access to some functions or contents. If your access control is faulty or flawed, attackers can access data or take control of accounts. 

Moreover, Implementing proxy detection mechanisms can help identify and mitigate attacks originating from suspicious or anonymized sources, adding an essential layer to your security framework.

9 best security practices for REST API development

Security Practices For REST API

You are now aware of some of the most common security threats your REST API may face. You have to assume that any program or system is under threat, whether it is a banking app or an AI customer care program. In the development stage, what security measures should you implement or advise users to use?

1. TLS (transport layer security) encryption 

The data transferred by your API—such as B2B intent data—is important and can have varying degrees of confidentiality. If you use TLS for your API, then all communications between the end user and the application will be encrypted. 

TLS is not only good for your REST API but also for your web app. It will also secure any authentication credentials such as passwords, tokens, or API keys. 

2. Have a robust authentication and authorization model

You may use common techniques—such as security tokens or API keys—to manage access to your REST API. However, managing those keys and tokens can present its own challenges. 

The complexity of managing those access options can lead to security vulnerabilities for your REST API. You can reduce security risks in this area by integrating your API with an identity management system that will both issue and authenticate tokens and keys. You can also use a centralized gateway for your API that will protect your data.

3. Keep URLs free of sensitive information

One of the most common design flaws with REST APIs is the inclusion of sensitive information in the URL. This can include things such as API keys, user credentials, or tokens. Even if you are using TLS, cybercriminals can easily discover this information. 

You also have to consider that your URL may be logged frequently by the servers it passes through and any networking devices on the API’s data path. This can expose any sensitive information to further threats. Always ensure that any URL you use is free of all sensitive data and that you follow online security protocols.

4. Utilize the cloud for large API security datasets

Security Practices For REST API

If you operate your API security on-premises, then you will have a limit when it comes to analyzing activity. Not only are you limited to short windows, but that API data is then discarded. Given that many cyberattacks are ‘slow burn’ and can happen over weeks or months, this can render your security ineffectual. 

If you instead use the cloud for data from your API’s activity, you are accessing the computational power and scalability to analyze activity over longer periods. It also means you can conduct more detailed analyses and boost your security. 

5. Use behavioral analytics

The power afforded you by using the cloud for API activity data also means that, once you have accumulated enough activity data, you can use behavioral analytics. Behavioral analytics can be very useful when it comes to formulating an outbound sales strategy, but it can also be an important tool in your security strategy. 

Furthermore, incorporating tools like a cold emailing tool to enhance engagement can optimize your interactions with potential clients, leveraging the insights gained from your data analysis. This approach not only supports sales initiatives but is also an important tool in your security strategy.

The first benefit of applying behavioral analytics is that it identifies all the players and may include end users as well as legitimate business processes. You can then identify ‘normal’ patterns of usage and, from that, make it easier to identify any ‘abnormal’ behavior that may indicate a security threat.

6. Implement continuous discovery

It’s not always about the REST API you’re developing now. Even with the best security measures, developers can be caught out by ‘shadow’ APIs. These could exist in old legacy infrastructure or may have been implemented outside of your normal processes. Whatever their origins, they can pose a real threat to your API’s security. 

Utilizing collaboration software in this continuous discovery process can ensure that information about all APIs is shared and understood by all relevant teams, enhancing transparency and proactive management.

By implementing continuous discovery, you can build an inventory of all APIs. You should be looking at data from API activity that includes the following sources:

  • Any API gateways
  • Your content delivery networks (CDN)
  • Cloud provider logs
  • Log management systems

Analyzing the data collected from these sources will identify all APIs in use across your systems. If you find other REST APIs that are now defunct but causing issues, you can look to remove or decommission them.

7. Provide narrow definitions for requests and responses

Cybercriminals look to utilize APIs in malicious ways. This means that a request (or response) may not be what it purports to be. By providing narrow definitions for API requests—such as format, parameter types, length, etc.—you reduce the chances of an attack using requests to your API. 

It can also help if you extend these narrow definitions that your REST API is able to provide. Consider limiting the responses to content types such as GET or POST. 

8. Share and collaborate

It may seem obvious, but one of the best security practices you can follow is to share and collaborate. Highlighting how your REST API is being used, and what security threats it faces (or any vulnerabilities you may have identified) and sharing that information with your DevOps team and other relevant personnel can help mitigate risk. This can be especially helpful if you have teams using cross-platform development tools.

9. Be proactive and hunt for threats

Don’t wait till threats become a very real risk, seek them out so you can take action. If you do wait, then there is a chance that a risk becomes an incident, one that could damage your business. Implementing preventive maintenance for your systems and regularly updating security protocols can further strengthen your defenses against potential breaches.

If you go looking for threats, you may find there have been unsuccessful attempts but these can help you find weaknesses and shore them up. 

Close analysis of your API’s usage activity can also expose any previously undiscovered vulnerabilities before they are exploited. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure.

Security Practices For REST API

The takeaway

As cyber criminals get cleverer and find new and innovative ways to mount attacks, you need to keep up with them or ideally ahead of them. These criminals often find APIs as a convenient way of gaining access to an app or system and stealing any data and information used and stored there. 

There will always be attacks and there will always be vulnerabilities with REST APIs, but developers have a responsibility to reduce and mitigate any identified risks. By following these best practices, you are taking an important step to making your API less prone to any attack.

Austin Guanzon – Tier 1 Support Manager

Austin Guanzon is the Tier 1 Support Manager for Dialpad, the leading AI-powered customer intelligence platform. He is a customer retention and technical support expert, with experience at some of the largest tech service companies in the US.You can find him on LinkedIn.

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What is Developer Experience and Why Should You Care?

With all the talk of users and customers, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were the only stakeholders who matter. However, the truth is that for any company producing software, their dev teams matter at least as much. Developer experience should be a top priority for businesses in 2024.

What is developer experience?

Developer experience (DX) is an umbrella term for everything affecting the way software developers work. It shares many of the same factors as user experience, such as accessibility and engagement. In fact, when it comes to applications for software development like APIs or SDKs, user and developer experience are one and the same.

However, developer experience often refers to the experience of the team creating software to be sold by your business. Say you have a team designing Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) software. You’ll need a solid developer experience strategy for your team to work efficiently and support the product long-term.

Why it matters

Behind every successful app or web service are a vast number of work hours and the contributions of any number of people. Poor developer experience is rife with obstacles and inefficiencies. Perhaps there isn’t a quick way of mediating between different dev apps and data collection tools, for example.

It’s important to resist the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality with things like this. Even if your team is used to working around a given issue, it’s still a drain on time and energy, which means less left over for innovation or running additional product testing.

Of course, developer experience isn’t just about workflow or setup. It’s also about the support you provide your dev team as their employer. After all, it’s important to keep your people fresh if you want them to do their best work.

For a glimpse of what happens when dev teams don’t get this support, look at Developer Nation’s State of Developer Wellness report for 2024.

83% of surveyed developers reported experiencing burnout at some stage in their careers. 84% had to work overtime “at least occasionally.” 38% reported dissatisfaction with this, and a further 8% reported overwhelming dissatisfaction.

Of course, some overtime is inevitable in full-time work. It’s still important, however, to consider when it may be unnecessary or excessive.

It’s also important to remember that burnout isn’t merely being tired at the end of a long week. It’s the cumulative result of ongoing stress and exhaustion. If someone regularly gets given unreasonable workloads, they’ll still be there at the end of a weekend off.

The responsibilities of DX teams and specialists

Developer Experience

Developer experience hasn’t historically been considered to be as essential as user experience, but many tech companies have DX specialists or even dedicated teams nowadays. These personnel help to keep things running smoothly by maintaining support processes and identifying potential blockers.

Before we get into how to improve your company’s developer experience, let’s look at some of the core responsibilities for your DX team.

Technical documentation

Technical documentation may not be the most interesting thing in the world, but it’s essential for keeping your people on the same page. Think patch notes, user manuals, or any additional knowledge resources.

To further empower developers, incorporating self-service resources within this documentation can be a game changer. This acts as a knowledge base from which developers can find solutions and learn independently, enhancing their ability to handle challenges more efficiently and reducing downtime.

Each iteration of your platform could include any number of changes, large or small. As such, technical documentation is essential for your people to keep track of them. This helps to standardize their approaches and keeps different devs from accidentally working against each other.

Proper documentation is also the best tool for getting new members of your team up to speed on how the product works.

Let’s say you’re designing a platform as part of plans to start a virtual call center, and you’ve designed your own proprietary VoIP system. New hires need a working knowledge of the digital architecture before they can meaningfully contribute to the development process. Otherwise, they’ll be operating on potentially incorrect assumptions, which is a quick path to bugs and incompatibility errors.

Establishing efficient workflow procedure

While all roads may lead to Rome, some definitely get there more quickly than others. As such, another key developer experience responsibility is to define workflow.

You need to set up efficient procedures for everything, from stack management and testing to the documentation underpinning everything. This helps to prevent internal bottlenecks, as well as mistakes and oversights.

For example, let’s say you want to include more stringent review processes for work on the stack. Let’s see how that might look using a product landing page as an example:

  • Product landing page ready for the stack.
  • The page is queued for review by two or more colleagues (they check the code for errors, similar to how you might proofread a written document).
  • In case of errors, the landing page returns to the stack for alterations.
  • Queued for re-review.
  • A/B testing queue.
  • Final report.

Choosing the best tools and programming languages

The saying “a poor craftsman blames their tools” arguably doesn’t apply when it comes to the developer experience. Between APIs, SDKs, and programming languages, devs have all sorts of options for how to start building virtual apps and interfaces.

Add to that all the secondary and tertiary applications, like data analysis AI or stack management software, and the sheer volume of tools and techniques for developers is mind-boggling.

Effective internal tools streamline these processes by automating routine tasks, ensuring that developers can focus more on creativity and less on cumbersome workflows.

Whichever options you choose, it’s important to keep things standardized across your business to prevent compatibility issues.

The best ways to support and improve developer experience

If you thought DX work began and ended with the above responsibilities, then think again. There’s so much more you can do to create an innovative, supportive developer experience for your business.

Enable innovation and creativity

Designing a virtual product can so often feel like an exercise in hitting points on a checklist. Customer portal login? Check. Product search function? Check. Personalized recommendation system? Check.

To further enhance our team’s ability to innovate, we encourage developers to pursue further education, such as a certificate in data science, equipping them with advanced analytical skills that are essential in today’s tech landscape.

The importance of upskilling cannot be overstated, as it ensures developers stay current with emerging technologies and industry standards, which is crucial for maintaining competitive and innovative teams.

But a solid developer experience offers countless opportunities to experiment and think outside the box. Compare a product that was rushed out the door to one which had time to breathe, and the difference is like night and day.

Let’s revisit our example of developing for a virtual call center. Your major checklist might include:

  • VoIP functionality.
  • Customer or client database.
  • Product or service knowledge database.

That might be all call center workers need, strictly speaking. Given the time and resources to innovate, however, you can come up with all kinds of functions and features, like a call center quality monitoring scorecard to help track worker performance and customer attitudes.

Support developer wellbeing

Employee wellbeing is an essential priority for any successful business. It’s influenced by things like workload, working conditions, employer supportiveness, and even employer ethics. After all, people want to think they’re working for the good guy. ESG reporting can help companies stay on top of their moral and societal obligations like fair pay and green practices (if you find yourself asking, “what is an ESG report?” take this as a sign to look into them!).

We’ve already mentioned the prevalence of developer burnout, but it’s important to understand the consequences of letting it go on unchecked. Burnout can deal serious, lasting damage to a person’s mental and even physical health.

Victims of burnout often need a long time to recover. Many end up quitting their role, or even their entire industry or sector altogether. As such, if you don’t want attrition to claim your top dev talent, you need to take preventative measures. These include:

  • Minimizing overtime wherever possible.
  • Appropriate, reasonable goal-setting (such as SMART Goals).
  • Hiring enough people to handle projects and absences.
  • Providing sick days and PTO, and encouraging their use.
  • Enabling job flexibility for developers.

Provide job flexibility

If your experience as a manager has been more traditional, learning how to manage remote developers effectively can seem quite daunting. However, the COVID-19 pandemic showed that remote work and other types of job flexibility… well, work.

After all, everyone has some sort of life outside of work, whether it’s family commitments, side hustles, or active social lives. Job flexibility allows people to more effectively maintain their work/life balance. This helps to prevent personal problems from spilling into the workplace.

It’s never been easier for businesses to support hybrid or remote teams, making for a far more flexible developer experience.

Make web analytics and app stats front and center

It’s often not just a product or service’s initial launch you’ve got to worry about. You also need to consider how it’ll be supported going forward. For this, a steady supply of web analytics is absolutely essential.

Accessible KPIs, like CTRs, conversions, ad engagement, and general traffic help devs to see what is and isn’t working. Of course, monitoring these things over time can turn into busy work unless you make them easy to find.

Develop a system to display them in real-time, or periodically update documentation on your developer portal. Either way, it’s in your best interests to serve that info up on a silver platter.

A great developer experience gives you an edge on competitors

If you’ve read this far, then you know that prioritizing developer experience isn’t just great for your dev team. It’s essential if you want your software brand to succeed.

DX is now an essential aspect of any tech company’s workplace culture, particularly useful for keeping your team fresh enough to offer their best. On top of that, standardized tools and practices help to prevent conflicting efforts, wasted resources, and issues with compatibility.

In other words, if you don’t have a dedicated DX team, or even a single specialist, then that absolutely needs to change.

Austin Guanzon – Tier 1 Support Manager

Austin Guanzon is the Tier 1 Support Manager for Dialpad, the leading AI-powered customer intelligence platform. He is a customer retention and technical support expert, with experience at some of the largest tech service companies in the US. You can find him on LinkedIn.