Back at the GCPNext16 event in 2016, Google announced the delivery of a tool known as Google Stackdriver, a solution intended to give IT Decision Makers a unified service for alerting, incident management, monitoring, and logging - complete with visual dashboards for each section.

Google originally acquired Stackdriver in 2014, when it was designed mainly for AWS monitoring. Today, it's a highly valuable solution for teams that use both AWS and the Google Cloud Platform. Stackdriver is bringing CIO capabilities together in a single tool and offering a valuable service that's highly personalized and customizable. Thanks to recent updates, the toolset is now more appealing than ever before, for Google Cloud Platform, AWS, and multi-cloud monitoring purposes.

Just like Google Compute Engine, the customizable nature of Google Stackdriver could make it the perfect solution for individuals and CIOs who want to test the waters with a multi-cloud platform, and check out what might be available for them in the future.

What is Google Stack Driver?

This article is all about Stackdriver from Google.   This was a buyout  in 2014- stackdriver

originally was a monitoring tool just for AWS.  https://cloud.google.com/stackdriver/

The toolset is better than ever especially for AWS, GCP, Hybrid and multi-cloud monitoring.    

New features announced:

 

Stackdriver, like Google Compute Engine, is another easy small step into google cloud platform, to take advantage of a multi-cloud strategy, test the waters, etc....

Google Stackdriver is essentially a SaaS package intended for logging, monitoring, and diagnostic services. It gives CIOs a unified insight into the applications that they want to run on AWS and Google Cloud Platform, helping engineers to keep their cloud-powered applications as agile as possible. This is ideal for CIOs who are interested in taking advantage of the hybrid cloud for the first time, and seeing the potential that multi-cloud has to offer.

The basic components of Stackdriver include:

• Monitoring: See what your system, app, and platform are doing in real-time with dashboards, alerts, and health checks.

• Logging: View, search, and filter logs in your app, system, and platform.

• Trace: Access information on per-URL latency sampling and reporting

• Error reporting: Evaluate informative errors through notifications and dashboard reporting.

• Debug: View debug snapshots, enjoy IDE integration, and access conditional snapshots according to your needs.

Google Stackdriver Updates

Towards the end of August 2017, Google announced a range of updates coming to Stackdriver. Now, the system gives CIOs the ability to access an even greater range of features through the logging, diagnostics, and monitoring suite. For instance:

• Stackdriver gives CIOs easier analytics thanks to log-based metrics and the ability to aggregate log exports or fine-tune logging with exclusion filters. It can take under a minute for logs to be reflected on a metric. What's more, users can take user-defined labels from the text in logs, and extract values from logs to transform them into distribution metrics.

• At the end of the year, Stackdriver logging will come with 50GB of logs per project, per month for free. Customers can also sign up for a premium rate tier to keep logs beyond their 50GB a month allocation.

• Customers will be able to export their logs into PubSub, GCS, or BigQuery using log sinks. Admins can also set up sinks once so that they can be inherited by all sub folders and sub sequential projects. This means that security administrators, for instance, could export all their audit logs with a single command.

• With exclusion filters, customers can reduce costs in their network, manage compliance by blocking logs from specific sources, and improve the signal to noise ratios by minimizing "chatty" logs.

How Stackdriver Changes the Landscape for IT Admins

Stackdriver is a solution that allows CIOs to enjoy the flexibility of a multi-cloud environment, without having to dedicate their budget to permanent services. For instance, with Stackdriver, you can enjoy completely customizable error reports that provide insights when problems occur with apps on the AWS or Google platform. The idea of Stackdriver is to make it easier for CIOs to do their job, with visual displays of everything that's happening across their cloud creations - no matter the environment.

Google Stackdriver rocks our G Suite Because:

• It's the only SaaS monitoring tool to be built for AWS natively before the Google acquisition, which makes it ideal for hybrid environments that run on a combination of the two.

• Stackdriver is the only service that can integrate tracking, monitoring, logging, and error reports into a single unified solution.

• Stackdriver is the only SaaS solution that offers premium logging and monitoring for one basic price.

 The best Multi-Cloud Monitoring Solution Available Today

The Stackdriver solution means that Google is the only major cloud provider on the market today that can provide a complete logging and monitoring solution for companies who want a multi-cloud solution. For CIOs, Stackdriver allows for a simpler hybrid deployment, that involves plenty of customization options for personalized success. Engineers can identify and resolve problems with applications quickly and effectively, leading to greater satisfaction among end-users.

Additionally, Stackdriver provides a cost-effective option for integrated logging, monitoring, and diagnostics in the current market. It reduces the spend on disparate alternative tools, and because it's completely hosted by Google, everything is agile, flexible, and customizable. CIOs no longer have to worry about scaling monitoring systems, instead, they can simply focus on automation, capacity planning, and various other tasks intended to make teams more productive and efficient.

Google Stackdriver: The Simple Solution to Multi-Cloud

Stackdriver is the simple solution for CIOs who want to explore the multi-cloud environment without any huge commitments. It provides multiple monitoring and logging tools into one user environment, which means that experts can access unbeatable visibility into system hosts, cloud infrastructure, and customer applications.

As a native to the world of multiple-cloud support, Stackdriver can manage Amazon web services, Cloud, and more. Essentially, it's a system built from the ground up to support distributed systems in the modern world, and cloud architecture patterns. CIOs can analyze their data through seamless integrations with GCP services like Data lab and BigQuery while using all the same infrastructure and technology that makes Google so effective.

If you're thinking of getting started with hybrid cloud, the simple and low-cost solution that Stackdriver offers could be the perfect way to begin.

Awesome pic by Dushan Hanuska on Flickr - super cool!