What is decentralized or distributed monitoring? Other soluttions claim this too. How is Netdata different?
All monitoring solutions are distributed as far as data collection is concerned. So, all solutions provide some kind of agents or probes, which are installed across the infrastructure, to collect observability data.
Traditional monitoring solutions however process and store all this data at a central place. So, their agents and probes are simple relays that send all monitoring data to the central location, which processes, analyses and stores this data. This central place is responsible for providing all the monitoring functions, including retention, dashboards and alerts. When centralizing data like this, monitoring systems face scalability issues. Their central component needs to ingest, process and store all the data from the whole infrastructure, and therefore to control the compute power and storage required, they have to lower the data collection resolution, cherry pick the most important data sources, and lower retention.
Netdata on other hand, builds observability pipelines like lego blocks. Each agent installed is a complete monitoring solution, distributing the processing and storage of the observability data across the infrastructure. Users have the flexibility to run their infrastructure without any centralization points, or with multiple smaller and independent centralization points, based on their operational needs. This removes the bottleneck from the observability pipeline, decoupling granularity and cardinality from scalability, allowing Netdata to ingest data in high resolution from all possible sources. The cost of running Netdata is significantly lower, by avoiding data in transit and using compute resources that are already available and spare, while providing the best fidelity of insights.
How does Netdata's approach to real-time data collection compare to other monitoring solutions in the industry?
Netdata sets a standard in the industry with per-second data collection for all metrics that allow it, ensuring real-time systems and applications performance monitoring. This contrasts with many monitoring solutions where data intervals range from 10 to 60 seconds, leading to less immediate insights and potentially delayed issue resolution.
Netdata's data collection to visualization latency is less than 1-second. So, changes to the infrastructure are immediately reflected on the dashboards, independently of the infrastructure size. This is crucial during crisis, where the effects of your actions need to be verified immediately, reducing the time to resolution significantly.
What differentiates Netdata's monitoring strategy from typical industry practices?
Unlike many tools that recommend cherry-picking metrics, Netdata provides comprehensive monitoring by default. Every metric collected is automatically visualized, ensuring critical data is readily available, especially during urgent situations like system outages.
How does Netdata ensure actionable insights over data overload?
Netdata employs advanced data science techniques to transform complex data into clear, actionable insights. This approach is tailored for IT teams and developers, focusing on issue resolution and intuitive understanding, rather than overwhelming them with raw data.
What makes Netdata's dashboards more intuitive compared to traditional industry solutions?
Netdata offers opinionated dashboards with built-in knowledge, aiding users in understanding their system metrics without requiring extensive expertise. This contrasts with many traditional tools that often require users to have in-depth knowledge of metrics for effective monitoring.
How does Netdata simplify the user experience compared to standard query-based monitoring tools?
Netdata reverses the typical approach of query editors by providing answers first, guiding users to the root causes of issues. This intuitive solution helps uncover critical questions that users might not even realize they need to ask.
What advantages does Netdata offer with its pre-configured dashboards and alerts?
Netdata eliminates the time-consuming setup of dashboards and alerts common in the industry. It offers pre-configured, out-of-the-box solutions tailored for standard systems and applications, enabling immediate and effective monitoring without manual configuration.
In terms of scalability and cost, how does Netdata compare to other monitoring tools?
Netdata’s decentralized architecture enables infinite scalability without significant cost increases, a stark contrast to the centralized models of traditional tools which can lead to bottlenecks and escalating costs. This model ensures that Netdata remains cost-effective and scalable for organizations of any size.