Zappos.com is an American online shoe and clothing retailer founded in 1999. In July 2009, Zappos reached $1 billion in sales and was acquired by Amazon.
Zappos existing monitoring tool was performing poorly, and their IT team spent too much time maintaining the underperforming tools. Also, their rapid growth meant that Zappos needed more automation to manage their IT effectively.
Netrix implemented a new monitoring system that reduced error rates by 95% and improved overall latency by 50%.
Implementing Basic Improvements
With the busy holiday season approaching, we prioritized stabilizing the existing monitoring system and introducing new metrics that would make the biggest impact on overall performance. We implemented metrics that increased visibility into each layer of their infrastructure, from web servers to databases, including number of errors, sales per minute, and latency times. With this new visibility, it was easier for Zappos to identify issues and improve quickly. Within just a few months, they had reduced the error rate by 95% and improved overall latency by 50%.
Migrating to a new monitoring platform
As we continued to collect more performance data and introduce thousands of new metrics, it became clear that the existing monitoring system wasn’t capable of keeping up. We migrated to a more scalable, robust solution—Nagios (version 3), the current worldwide standard for IT monitoring. This new platform enabled the Zappos team to gain even higher visibility into all levels of technical operations.
Integrating with Amazon
During the same year we began working with Zappos, Amazon acquired the company for nearly $1 billion. As a key technology partner, we helped Zappos integrate their technology platforms with AWS, including implementing new monitoring protocols to Amazon’s specifications in just two months. With the flexibility of the new monitoring system, we were able to deliver. We created metrics new to both Zappos and Amazon, and our custom solution even allowed Zappos to detect problems before Amazon.
Pains
Thanks to Netrix, Zappos has one of the best and most comprehensive monitoring systems I've seen! What a relief!
Gains
No matter what challenge you’re facing today, our team of technical experts can get you started on a path to a better solution. We’ll partner with you to:
