5 ms·

>"Corollary: No one needs real-time" If you've ever run service where you're anticipating a large traffic spike and you need to monitor server stats, real-time

by error54 12y ago

>"Corollary: No one needs real-time" If you've ever run service where you're anticipating a large traffic spike and you need to monitor server stats, real-time statistics are invaluable.

pyvpx 12y ago
precisely. try running a network of any appreciable throughput (10G+) with 5-minute averages.
je42 12y ago
Or you release a new version of a game and you notice your arpdau tanks. ;)
- je42 12y ago
  Or try to instrument any analytics - and wait to verify they show up in the dashboard correctly.
  - luos 12y ago
    Or you are a small business owner who just likes to watch what the users are doing in realtime, for fun. Like my mom :)
hvass 12y ago
The heuristic whether to use real-time information is the following and I am paraphrasing Avinash Kaushik: "Will a decision be made in real-time based on this information?"
saosebastiao 12y ago
If you know exactly what you are waiting for and you know exactly what you will do when it happens, then you should probably automate and optimize that process instead of spending your time building some fancy graphics. And if you don't know what you are waiting for nor what you will do about it, you don't need real time metrics.
- error54 12y ago
  What if it's an event that happens infrequently, say 2 times year? In such cases, it wouldn't be worthwhile to spend the time automating when it's easier/cheaper to take manual action.
  - dkarapetyan 12y ago
    No, automation is always the answer. When you are forced to formalize processes with code you invariably find all sorts of hidden assumptions. This has happened to me every single time I've tried to automate legacy manual processes. There are always hidden assumptions that are unearthed. Unearthing hidden assumptions is always worth the effort.
    - ams6110 12y ago
      http://xkcd.com/1319/ http://xkcd.com/1319/ Or maybe http://xkcd.com/1205/ http://xkcd.com/1205/
      - myhf 12y ago
        Total time spent on automating plus executing is not a very useful metric, because preparation time and reaction time are not interchangeable.
    - coldtea 12y ago
      A hidden assumption behind what you wrote is that all automation is like the scripts you've written to automate your processes. There are things which automating them would take lots of man-months and tens of thousands of dollars, so much that the effort is not worth it from the savings -- or from any "hidden assumptions" you discover.
      - jbergens 12y ago
        You should also consider how much it costs you to miss a part of a process that is manually carried out but that could be automated. If it really expensive to miss something then automation might be a good idea even for simple tasks.
mcfunley 12y ago
He should have differentiated operational metrics from product (or business) metrics. He seems to be talking about the latter categories.
gabemart 12y ago
On this note, is it possible to set up real-time alerts with Google analytics? I'd like to set up an alert like "If the number of real-time simultaneous users rises above n, send an email to this address." I don't believe it is possible, but it seems like an extremely useful feature.

by error54 12y ago

>"Corollary: No one needs real-time" If you've ever run service where you're anticipating a large traffic spike and you need to monitor server stats, real-time statistics are invaluable.

pyvpx 12y ago

precisely. try running a network of any appreciable throughput (10G+) with 5-minute averages.

je42 12y ago

Or you release a new version of a game and you notice your arpdau tanks. ;)

je42 12y ago
Or try to instrument any analytics - and wait to verify they show up in the dashboard correctly.
- luos 12y ago
  Or you are a small business owner who just likes to watch what the users are doing in realtime, for fun. Like my mom :)

hvass 12y ago

The heuristic whether to use real-time information is the following and I am paraphrasing Avinash Kaushik: "Will a decision be made in real-time based on this information?"

saosebastiao 12y ago

If you know exactly what you are waiting for and you know exactly what you will do when it happens, then you should probably automate and optimize that process instead of spending your time building some fancy graphics. And if you don't know what you are waiting for nor what you will do about it, you don't need real time metrics.

error54 12y ago
What if it's an event that happens infrequently, say 2 times year? In such cases, it wouldn't be worthwhile to spend the time automating when it's easier/cheaper to take manual action.
- dkarapetyan 12y ago
  No, automation is always the answer. When you are forced to formalize processes with code you invariably find all sorts of hidden assumptions. This has happened to me every single time I've tried to automate legacy manual processes. There are always hidden assumptions that are unearthed. Unearthing hidden assumptions is always worth the effort.
  - ams6110 12y ago
    http://xkcd.com/1319/ http://xkcd.com/1319/ Or maybe http://xkcd.com/1205/ http://xkcd.com/1205/
    - myhf 12y ago
      Total time spent on automating plus executing is not a very useful metric, because preparation time and reaction time are not interchangeable.
  - coldtea 12y ago
    A hidden assumption behind what you wrote is that all automation is like the scripts you've written to automate your processes. There are things which automating them would take lots of man-months and tens of thousands of dollars, so much that the effort is not worth it from the savings -- or from any "hidden assumptions" you discover.
    - jbergens 12y ago
      You should also consider how much it costs you to miss a part of a process that is manually carried out but that could be automated. If it really expensive to miss something then automation might be a good idea even for simple tasks.

mcfunley 12y ago

He should have differentiated operational metrics from product (or business) metrics. He seems to be talking about the latter categories.

gabemart 12y ago

On this note, is it possible to set up real-time alerts with Google analytics? I'd like to set up an alert like "If the number of real-time simultaneous users rises above n, send an email to this address." I don't believe it is possible, but it seems like an extremely useful feature.