APM, MSP

Datadog Launches Notebooks for MSP Runbooks, Postmortems

Datadog has launched Notebooks, which may allow MSPs to more effectively investigate IT issues, correct problems, identify warning signs before issues escalate, and document best practices or corrective measures.

This quick Datadog video further explains the potential value of Notebooks to MSPs and DevOps teams:

Datadog says Notebooks, part of the company's overall IT monitoring platform, allows MSPs to combine real-time or historical graphs with Markdown cells to:

In some ways, Datadog Notebooks remind me of...

  • Pilixo MSP Replay, though that is more of a video replay tool that helps MSPs to see exactly when and how a user broke his or her PC.
  • IT Glue, though that's an overall documentation platform for MSPs.

Who Is Datadog?

Datadog is a fast-growing provider of "web scale" infrastructure monitoring software for cloud and on-premises workloads. The company's cloud-based service allows DevOps teams and MSPs to monitor and troubleshoot infrastructure issues in real-time. Datadog also is developing APM (application performance monitoring) features to compete vs. AppDynamics, Dynatrace and New Relic, among others.

Scott Haylon
Scott Haylon

Still privately held, Datadog has quietly attracted MSPs and other types of channel partners onto its platform.  Scott Haylon, director of business development, joined Datadog in June 2015, and has been working closely with all types of partners — from resellers to MSPs. The MSPs, in particular, have been “sweet spot” partners so far.

Key MSP partners include Trek10 (U.S.), CorpInfo (U.S.), Nordcloud (the Nordics) and Emind (Israel), among others. Most of the MSPs are assisting customers with infrastructure monitoring in public clouds, but some also are assisting with OpenStack monitoring.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.