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How Developers Can Help SREs with Observability

This blog post argues that collaboration between developers and SREs is essential for building reliable software. The blog post outlines five ways that developers can improve SRE observability:

Embrace the 12-Factor App Methodology: This methodology creates applications that are easier to deploy and monitor.

Share Performance Testing Data: This data helps SREs understand how the application should function under pressure.

Maintain Clear and Concise Documentation: Clear documentation empowers SREs to resolve issues faster.

Leverage AIOps for System Administration: AIOps automates tasks and improves IT operations.

Increase System Observability Through Code: Expose relevant metrics within the code to provide SREs with real-time insights.

In the world of software development, reliability is a team effort. The more developers and SREs collaborate, the more successful the product will be. This blog post explores five best practices that developers can adopt to improve SRE observability.

The Importance of Collaboration Between Developers and SREs

Maintaining a reliable and healthy software system is a complex task. While software engineers focus on creating high-quality software, Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) ensure the product’s uptime and performance. Ideally, developers and SREs should work together from the beginning to create a system built for reliability. This empowers developers to build solutions faster and more transparently, allowing SREs to manage applications effectively.

How Developers Can Improve SRE Observability

Developing with SRE Observability in Mind

SRE observability is the ability to monitor and understand a system’s internal state. By following these five practices, developers can significantly improve SRE observability:

  1. Embrace the 12-Factor App Methodology

The 12-factor app methodology is a set of guidelines for building modern, scalable web applications. 12-factor apps are stateless and portable, making them easier to deploy and monitor. This reduces the workload for SREs by creating a more resilient architecture with fewer failure points.

  1. Share Performance Testing Data

Performance testing involves assessing an application’s behavior under various loads. Sharing performance testing data with SREs provides them with valuable insights into the application’s thresholds and helps them understand how the application should function under pressure.

  1. Maintain Clear and Concise Documentation

Well-maintained documentation is crucial for SREs. Clear and concise documentation on application functionality, configuration, and troubleshooting procedures empowers SREs to resolve issues faster and more efficiently.

  1. Leverage AIOps for System Administration

AI for IT Operations (AIOps) utilizes artificial intelligence to automate tasks and improve IT operations. Developers can streamline SRE workflows by developing custom AIOps solutions for automated deployments, anomaly detection, and self-healing functionalities.

  1. Increase System Observability Through Code

Developers can improve SRE observability by enabling debug support within the code. This can involve exposing relevant metrics such as request counts, successful/failed request details, and other performance indicators. This data provides SREs with real-time insights into application health and performance.

Conclusion

By following these best practices, developers can significantly improve SRE observability, allowing SREs to identify and resolve issues more efficiently. Improved collaboration between developers and SREs ultimately leads to a more reliable and performant software product.

Squadcast: The Incident Management Tool Built for SREs

Squadcast is an incident management platform designed specifically for SREs. It eliminates alert fatigue, delivers relevant notifications, and integrates with popular ChatOps tools. Streamline collaboration using virtual incident war rooms and leverage automation to reduce manual tasks.

Let us know in the comments how these five practices have helped improve your SRE team’s workflow!


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Squadcast Inc

@squadcast
Squadcast is a cloud-based software designed around Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices with best-of-breed Incident Management & On-call Scheduling capabilities.
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