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The Web Server Chain of Events
 A typical connection from a customer's Web browser to a Web server consists of many components, all of which must perform well to provide a good customer experience (fast response, no timeouts, no error messages etc.). If any of these items (hardware or software) are not working as designed or expected, it becomes a very challenging task to determine where the source of the problem is. Compounding all this is the fact that there are often numerous suppliers, carriers, service providers etc. in this connectivity "chain", making it very difficult to get any one to own the problem or even admit that the problem MAY be at their end. While not all Web-based connections are the same, a typical scenario is this: The customer uses a PC with a Web browser application (Microsoft IE, Netscape etc.) and dials into their own local Internet Service Provider (ISP), using a phone line from the local telephone company. The ISP has a complex network infrastructure consisting of routers, firewalls, Ethernet switches etc. and they in turn are connected to a backbone Internet carrier. The connection then gets routed through the Internet by the backbone Internet carrier and ends up at the Web hosting provider of the company whose Web site the customer is trying to reach. The Web hosting provider has a similar network infrastructure as the customer's ISP to connect to the Internet backbone. The next device the customer's connection will encounter is often a reverse-proxy or caching server (to provide address translation and faster access). This device will then get its data from the actual Web server (normally an NT server running Microsoft IIS or Unix server running Apache). If the application is more than just simple, static Web pages (often called "brochure ware") then the Web server will need to request data from a database server. This server can be located at the Web hosting provider's site or can be located at the company that owns the Web site. If so, that connection will normally go through another firewall, routers, WAN connections etc. Protect Your Online Business with AlertMeFirst! It is not unusual for this entire chain of components to include dozens of different devices, any one of which can cause the connection to slow down or fail. If there are any problematic or intermittent devices like that, the services AlertMeFirst provides will assist companies in determining where the problem is so that the right service provider or carrier can be contacted to fix it. In many cases these service providers are not even aware that there is a problem since the monitoring that they do on their own network only represents a very small portion of the entire path of the customer's (end-user's) connection. Most monitoring that is done by service providers is on a link-state (or up/down) basis and does not look at the actual throughput of real data. AlertMeFirst simulates the type of connection and data that a customer would use (by connecting to the Internet through an ISP connection just like a customer) and monitors and measures the results on a 24/7 basis. Even devices that are at the very end of the connection chain, such as database servers, can be monitored by simply setting up a page on the main Web server that accesses data on these database servers. This eliminates the need for any special access through firewalls etc. and will "exercise" every single component that is critical to a reliable and effective customer experience. |