Infrastructure monitoring involves collecting and analyzing data from IT systems like servers, networks, and cloud environments to ensure performance, availability, and security. It’s critical because it helps detect issues proactively, minimizes downtime, optimizes resource usage, and ensures a seamless user experience, directly impacting business reliability and customer satisfaction.

APM focuses on tracking the performance, availability, and user experience of applications, including response times and error rates, across the entire software stack. Infrastructure monitoring, on the other hand, oversees the underlying hardware, networks, and cloud resources. APM provides deeper insights into application-specific issues, while infrastructure monitoring ensures the foundational systems are healthy.

Logging captures detailed records of system events, errors, and activities, helping teams diagnose issues. Tracing tracks the journey of a request through distributed systems, identifying bottlenecks or failures. Together, they complement metrics to provide a comprehensive view of system health, enabling faster root cause analysis and improved observability.

Effective alerting uses predefined thresholds and real-time data to notify teams of potential issues, such as high CPU usage or application errors, before they escalate. By prioritizing critical alerts and reducing noise, teams can respond quickly, minimizing downtime and ensuring service reliability. Tools like customizable dashboards and automated notifications enhance this process.

SRE is a discipline that applies software engineering principles to IT operations to improve system reliability and performance. It integrates with monitoring by defining key metrics (like the four golden signals: latency, errors, saturation, and traffic), automating responses, and using observability tools to proactively manage systems, ensuring high availability and efficient incident response.