Often when organizations make the shift to SaaS-driven applications, such as Microsoft Office 365 or Salesforce, they can run into performance issues that traditional IT monitoring solutions are helpless to address. This is because SaaS applications behave very differently to legacy on-premise solutions. TL;DR: SaaS applications need a SaaS monitoring approach.
Why Traditional IT Monitoring Tools Can’t Help You with Office 365
SaaS monitoring solutions are fundamentally different from legacy application monitoring tools, which rely on code injection capabilities. Traditional code injection techniques won’t work on SaaS services because SaaS vendors don’t typically permit it. SaaS monitoring is laser-focused on determining the point of origin of an issue and who is impacted. This contrasts strongly with a legacy tool’s broader focus on finding “something to fix.” This makes SaaS a “black box” as far as legacy monitoring is concerned.
Office 365: Why Performance Data Is Key to Unlocking Office 365’s Full Potential
Office 365 is powerful, but it also has underlying complexities that can make performance variable, in addition to relying on Internet delivery. While Office 365’s various component applications (Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, etc.) may have a common look and feel, they are all distinct applications under the hood that may be delivered very differently. To get the best user experience possible for O365, organizations need to take a data-driven and data-aware approach in order to guarantee a smooth rollout of their SaaS application, with performance that is consistent and smooth.
How Should I Approach Office 365 Monitoring?
Whether you are just starting your Office 365 journey and want to ensure a smooth implementation, or you have already adopted it and are experiencing challenges with your users' experience, here are three “must read” resources that can help inform and enhance your Office 365 monitoring strategy:
- Webinar Recording - How to See and Resolve Office 365 Challenges
Take control of your Office 365 deployments with ThousandEyes and learn how to monitor, detect and resolve performance issues. This webinar covers:- Common misconceptions about Office 365 and how they affect performance
- Monitoring best practices for readiness, deployment and operational phases of your Office 365 rollout
- Real-world case studies explained through a demo
- Blog - Understand How Monitoring the SaaS Application Stack Differs from Legacy IT Monitoring
Check out our blog where we explain how SaaS monitoring differs from legacy monitoring, outline key technical considerations for SaaS solutions monitoring and share some early phase steps to consider when spinning up a cloud monitoring strategy. A great third-party document to read is Gartner’s “Use Monitoring for SaaS Despite Its Limitations,” (Gartner Technical Professionals subscription required), where Gartner offers guidance and best practices on implementation. The report also details the most critical features you should look for in your SaaS monitoring technologies.
The above resources are good pointers regarding common themes and best practices, but be aware there will be unique nuances specific to your situation, because every deployment of Office 365 is unique.