Observability Tools in Hosting: How Companies Reduce MTTR and Fix Issues Faster

Ever think about how web hosting companies are able to address your website related issues so fast? There is an explanation, and it’s not because they have some magical process. They have access to observability tools. These are the tools that help web hosting companies understand what is happening on servers and websites where problems occur, and what they can do to fix it quickly and reduce their own MTTR (Mean Time to Repair). Let’s take a closer look at the concept.

Why Observability is Important​

When a server goes down, or websites are slow, the hosting company needs to know quickly what is happening. Observability tools allow for web hosting teams to understand exactly what is happening on the server, almost like watching what is happening on a dashboard of a car to see how the engine is performing or any other issues that may arise.

The tools allow hosting companies to define the following three basic areas.

• Metrics - CPU, memory, and storage usage.
• Logs - A record of everything happening on the server.
• Traces - Where website requests go through the system.

With this information, teams do not have to make an educated guess, they know what the issue is.

Different Tools for Different Perspectives​

Hosting companies use a combination of tools:

• Prometheus and Grafana: Present server metrics using simple graphs.

• ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana): Enables searching server logs.

• Jaeger or Zipkin: Helps trace website requests to find where the website is slow.

Using all of this gives them a complete view of their system to see exactly why a website is slow or a server is failing.

How it Gets Problems Fixed Quickly​

Once they see the issue, they can respond quickly:

• Restart the service that is having issues.
• Allocate additional resources to the server (CPU, memory).
• Fix faulty code in either an app or plugin.

This significantly reduces mean time to recovery (MTTR). Some hosting providers are able to identify and troubleshoot problems within minutes instead of hours.

In Summary,​

Observability tools are a superpower for hosting providers; they enable a hosting provider to see, analyze, and respond to problems faster. If your website goes down, it will most likely be restored in short order given that the hosting provider has observability tools.

When hiring a hosting provider, select a provider that uses observability tools. Observability tools save time and stress, and provide a secure, stable experience for your website.