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You probably underestimate the added-value that (most) webapps provide over open-source tools or the code-it-yourself approach. We pay for Pingdom's service be

by cedsav 17y ago

You probably underestimate the added-value that (most) webapps provide over open-source tools or the code-it-yourself approach. We pay for Pingdom's service because: * our time is precious, we'd rather not do it ourselves. * we don't want to be monitoring our monitoring tools to make sure their work. * they provide a lot more features (reporting, API), which we actually need and use.

cschep 17y ago
I think you're right on with reporting. So many people need data laid out for them to hand to their boss, or just so they can understand what's going on. Getting data to tell your story, or the "real" story at all, can be worth a lot of money.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- cedsav 17y ago
  Very true. We show our uptime report to our customers. That in itself is probably worth more that what we're paying Pingdom.
russss 17y ago
Other advantages of Pingdom which aren't easy to emulate: * Pingdom measures response time and availability from multiple points on the internet, which is very useful for working out if there are issues with your connection. * Pingdom will alert you of downtime even in the case that there's a catastrophic failure of all your monitoring. Both of these things are useful even if you're a big company with a lot of internal monitoring.
electromagnetic 17y ago
> * our time is precious, we'd rather not do it ourselves. This is the simple reason why the majority of people buy things. Why does 99% of the population go out and buy their fish rather than go down to a stream with a rod and a tub of worms? I don't have the skills and resources (IE time) to either code my own webapps or to rely on open-source tools, despite how much I would like to. So when I have the option of, if something goes wrong, saying "Hey, I paid you, what-the-hell?!" I don't take this approach with computer maintenance and networking as I can handle that in my sleep, I can't handle my server-monitoring worth a damn. As I'm not up-to-date on any open-source server-monitoring tools, I'm always going to be at a loss if I try to set it up and don't care to keep up to date. Similar questions can be asked as to why HN users, who are likely more pro-organic than the regular population are paying for something that is free and easy to do. I've grown organic, pesticide & fertilizer free herbs and vegetables, so why doesn't everyone else? Because to me it seems as simple as pushing a seed into soil, but I know people who have difficulty in keeping a cactus alive and would by far prefer paying for their organics.
theBobMcCormick 17y ago
Your second point (monitoring of your monitoring tools) is a very key point for this particular example. I've seen many people through together a quick install of WhatsUP or Nagios or whatever, then get caught with their pants down months later when they find their monitoring server's been down for days and they didn't know it.

by cedsav 17y ago

cschep 17y ago

I think you're right on with reporting. So many people need data laid out for them to hand to their boss, or just so they can understand what's going on. Getting data to tell your story, or the "real" story at all, can be worth a lot of money.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
cedsav 17y ago
Very true. We show our uptime report to our customers. That in itself is probably worth more that what we're paying Pingdom.

russss 17y ago

Other advantages of Pingdom which aren't easy to emulate: * Pingdom measures response time and availability from multiple points on the internet, which is very useful for working out if there are issues with your connection. * Pingdom will alert you of downtime even in the case that there's a catastrophic failure of all your monitoring. Both of these things are useful even if you're a big company with a lot of internal monitoring.

electromagnetic 17y ago

> * our time is precious, we'd rather not do it ourselves. This is the simple reason why the majority of people buy things. Why does 99% of the population go out and buy their fish rather than go down to a stream with a rod and a tub of worms? I don't have the skills and resources (IE time) to either code my own webapps or to rely on open-source tools, despite how much I would like to. So when I have the option of, if something goes wrong, saying "Hey, I paid you, what-the-hell?!" I don't take this approach with computer maintenance and networking as I can handle that in my sleep, I can't handle my server-monitoring worth a damn. As I'm not up-to-date on any open-source server-monitoring tools, I'm always going to be at a loss if I try to set it up and don't care to keep up to date. Similar questions can be asked as to why HN users, who are likely more pro-organic than the regular population are paying for something that is free and easy to do. I've grown organic, pesticide & fertilizer free herbs and vegetables, so why doesn't everyone else? Because to me it seems as simple as pushing a seed into soil, but I know people who have difficulty in keeping a cactus alive and would by far prefer paying for their organics.

theBobMcCormick 17y ago

Your second point (monitoring of your monitoring tools) is a very key point for this particular example. I've seen many people through together a quick install of WhatsUP or Nagios or whatever, then get caught with their pants down months later when they find their monitoring server's been down for days and they didn't know it.