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| Date: 12 March 2010 |
| Website tests in the last week: |
| 1533804 |
| Errors detected in the last week: |
| 33560 |
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Website monitoring is essential in the internet age | | 2008/09/10 | | The internet can give companies a global reach, attracting customers to websites where they can find out information, interact and buy products online. Their place in the modern business world is of huge significance - online spending on retail products rose by 35 per cent to £14.7 billion in the UK last year.
As the importance of setting-up, adding to and maintaining an effective website becomes ever more vital, so does reliability and hence the imperativeness of website monitoring from an efficient and reliable partner.
The main reason firms opt for website monitoring is to minimise downtime which can cost huge amounts of money in the new 24/7 online global shopping mall.
Several reports on the Sainsburys.co.uk outage on June 17th, 2008 due to a technical issue estimated that the downtime could have cost Sainsbury's well over £1 million in lost online sales.
A Blue Oar analyst, Greg Lawless, explained that the supermarket could have felt a bigger impact from customers deserting its service. And it transpired that Asda, Tesco and Ocado all made efforts to attract Sainsbury's online customers who had been left out in the cold while the problem was being resolved.
Paul Mutton, internet services developer at web security specialist Netcraft, has highlighted the need for website monitoring. He made special reference to the usefulness of the service for ensuring against the break-down of databases.
Mr Mutton commented: "You may have a website that is publicly viewable but there's no point in that website being accessible if the database it relies on to back it doesn't work properly. Monitoring backing systems like databases is a good idea."
Website monitoring is not just a one-trick pony, however. Security is also integral to the smooth running of a website and threats such as fraud, phishing and pharming can all be combated with effective website monitoring and a secure infrastructure.
A worldwide perspective is also essential for effective website monitoring. On the world wide web, requests go down different routes, meaning websites could be unreachable from certain locations around the globe and work fine from others. This means that website monitoring from different locations is the best way of knowing if a site is in fact 'down', or whether it is just a regional problem.
When choosing a website monitoring service provider, the key features that the service must include are:
Multiple location monitoring False alarm suppression Availability monitoring (is the site responding with the correct status) Speed monitoring (how fast does the site load) Content monitoring (is the site showing the correct content) Instant error alerts via email and SMS (including full error details where possible) Maintenance scheduling Easy access to technical support Transaction monitoring (particularly if you are running an e-commerce site) Reports, statistics & log file access For more information on how Periscope IT can assist with your website monitoring needs please contact
customercare@periscopeit.co.uk
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