To the Edge and Back

Today we're living on the edge! Whether we're talking security and SASE, NaaS, or cloud computing—or many other topics, honestly—edge networks and edge computing are likely to make it into the conversation.

Greg welcomes two experts from Catchpoint to help us dig in: CEO Medhi Daoudi and VP of Operations Tony Ferrelli. Medhi's recent blog post Monitoring at the Edge of the Third Act of the Internet sets the tone for a great conversation, spanning enterprise apps, network monitoring, and the geography of the internet.

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Key Takeaways

The Internet is Entering Its "Third Act," Defined by Bringing Services Closer to the End User 

This evolution is driven by the increasing importance of low latency for applications like video conferencing and distributed workforces. Unlike earlier acts that focused on single data centers or placing content on CDNs in major points of presence, the third act involves breaking applications into smaller components (microservices) and distributing them even closer to where users are, which can be in rural areas, homes, or anywhere globally connected by satellite.

The definition of "the edge" is evolving and specific to customer requirements.

Edge Computing and Distributed Systems Introduce Significant Complexity for Enterprise IT

With services increasingly moving to SaaS, multi-cloud, and fragmented microservice architectures, traditional network management becomes more challenging because the underlying network infrastructure is often abstracted.

Simply knowing if the network is "up" is no longer sufficient; the focus must be on critical metrics like latency, performance, availability, and reliability from the perspective of the end user.

Effective Monitoring in the Age of Edge Requires an End-to-end, Unified Approach (and a Cultural Shift)

The complexity of distributed services means that monitoring must happen where it matters most—at the end user—and cover the entire service chain, not just individual components or network segments.

Organizations need to break down silos between development, operations, network, and security teams. Implementing meaningful SLAs based on actual user experience and prioritizing actionable data collection over simply gathering more data are crucial.

Strategies like multi-CDN, multi-DNS, and multi-cloud are essential for achieving the high levels of reliability and availability demanded by customers. Automation in monitoring is also becoming necessary to handle the scale.