Question 1

What's the difference between alerting and monitoring?

Accepted Answer

Monitoring is collecting and visualizing signals (metrics, logs, traces) so you can understand system health over time. Alerting is the action layer on top of monitoring: it evaluates those signals against rules (like thresholds or missing data) and notifies people or triggers automation when something needs attention.

Question 2

When should I use alerting?

Accepted Answer

Use alerting when a condition requires timely action—like preventing downtime, protecting data, or avoiding customer impact. Start with alerts tied to user impact (latency, error rate, availability), then add alerts for capacity and safety (CPU/memory saturation, disk full, certificate expiration). Avoid alerting on every metric; alert only when someone can and should do something about it.

Question 3

How much does alerting cost?

Accepted Answer

Costs depend on the cloud provider and what you alert on. Common pricing factors include: (1) number of monitored time series/metrics, (2) number of alert rules/alarms, (3) evaluation frequency, and (4) notification delivery (for example, SMS or phone calls can add charges). Many providers charge separately for the monitoring data you ingest/store and for notification services (such as AWS SNS). Always check the specific service pricing page for your region and expected alert volume.

Alerting

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