At its SLOconf event today, Nobl9 added a Query Tester tool that validates whether queries made against the data its service level objectives (SLO) management platform collects will deliver meaningful results. Nobl9’s SLO management platform collects data in real-time from data sources such as New Relic, Datadog and Dynatrace to help customers meet SLOs.

In addition, a Query Checker tool will now automatically put any new SLO into a testing state to automatically validate that the query against that SLO will run correctly.

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Which of the following best describes how you currently monitor and manage systems across your hybrid cloud environment?(Required)

Multiple separate tools for different environments

Multiple separate tools for different monitoring and management functions

Single consolidated dashboard

Custom built monitoring and management solution

No full monitoring and management solution

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How valuable would it be for your monitoring and management solution to incorporate predictive analytics to help you identify and address system issues that are critical and not waste time or effort working through all the data and “noise” that is not critical?(Required)

Extremely valuable

Moderately valuable

Somewhat valuable

Slightly valuable

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How do you most typically address potential system issues BEFORE they impact your operations?(Required)

Automated workflows and playbooks to remediate potential issues as soon as they are detected

An orchestrated response process that leverages automation, AI, and human expertise to rapidly respond to potential issues

Advanced monitoring tools such as predictive analytics and anomaly detection to proactively identify and address potential issues

Respond to issues as they arise, using manual processes and troubleshooting techniques

A combination of automated remediation, orchestrated response, and/or proactive monitoring to address potential system issues

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Other

What methods does your organization use to control and monitor cloud/IT spending?(Required)

Centralized procurement processes

Pre-approved budget thresholds

Automated cost monitoring tools

Department-level spending controls

Regular cost audits and reviews

Cloud cost optimization platform

Approval workflows for resource provisioning

Native financial operations tools provided by the cloud provider

No formal controls in place

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Which methods do you rely on most to detect security vulnerabilities in your systems?(Required)

Automated scanning tools

Manual assessments

Vendor notifications

Threat modeling (for early detection)

None of these

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What are the TWO most common ways you prioritize vulnerabilities to address within your environment?(Required)

Based on potential impact

Based on exploitability

Regulatory compliance requirements

Based on CVSS scores

Risk-based analysis of multiple factors

First-in-first-out approach

No formal prioritization process

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How do you typically handle system updates and security patches?(Required)

Automated updates and patches

Manually review and apply updates and patches on a regular schedule

A combination of automation and manual review

Apply updates and patches on an as-needed basis.

Outsourced update and patch management

No defined process

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The company has also improved the precision of its calculations to provide DevOps teams with more accurate, reliable and actionable insights into the performance of services and added a Metrics Health Notifier toolset that provides insights into anomalous data being collected from various sources as well as what data might be missing. Nobl9 has also added a Custom Query Delay tool that gives DevOps teams more control over when data is pulled along with access to data source logs.

Kit Merker, chief growth officer for Nobl9, said the overall goal is to improve the overall resiliency of its platform for managing SLOs.

Finally, Nobl9 also announced that its platform is now available for the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in addition to existing support for Amazon Web Services (AWS). As part of that GCP support, Nobl9 made available an educational site that provides example of how DevOps team can take advantage of the large language models (LLMs) that Google is making to improve SLOs or generate an SLO that is automatically converted into a set of YAML files.

A survey of 314 IT professionals conducted by Dimensional Insight on behalf of Nobl9 found 69% have implemented SLOs, with more than three-quarters of those respondents crediting SLOs for preventing business disruptions. A total of 80% also noted their organization has an increased focus on system reliability, with just over a quarter (27%) saying SLOs saved their organizations a half million dollars or more. A full 95% said SLOs are also driving better business decisions.

However, 97% also reported it is difficult to manage SLOs because of a lack of reporting, lack of application and environment support and interoperability issues.

Nobl9 is trying to spur greater adoption of SLOs by making available an open source SLO specification that defines a common interface for constructing SLOs across a Git-based workflow. Nobl9’s platform based on that specification has now been integrated with 24 data sources, said Merker.

SLOs, of course, are not a new idea. They have been employed as a metric to track the performance of IT services for decades. However, as more microservices-based applications are built and deployed, it’s becoming more challenging to maintain SLOs across applications that have many more dependencies than legacy monolithic applications.

Ultimately, each IT team needs to provide some sort of objective benchmark that assesses their overall effectiveness at delivering application services. SLOs-as-code are intended to make it simpler to gather the metrics that confirm whether service levels are being achieved. Those SLOs are then tracked and integrated across any set of application services a DevOps team cares to track.