I should have read this book for professional reasons. The client of my most recent employer has contracted this service and I am involved in a project that intends to make use of Datadog‘s functionalities to be able to monitor programs that data scientists generate. The idea is to be able, through this monitoring, to refine algorithms, products and services that the company produces.

Reading this book brought back memories. When I studied my bachelor’s degree on Informatics at the university, one of the last subjects I took was called «Computer Center Administration». The class was taught by a bank manager in charge of a computer centre, in charge of computer operations, or something like that; in any case, it was not so much the subject but the experience of this gentleman that gave added value to the course. Of course, this man had the problem of his work and he would be absent a lot or be late for his class. But, I still remember that it was a good course.

But a lot has changed since then. Today the study plans are elaborated with a perspective of use (like this cross-border plants or fabrics that we call «maquiladoras» in Mexico) more than with a business perspective. Those study plans seek to create developers rather than business professionals. These kind of services are not included in these curricula, nor are the grounds of these services. This is being left for the professional to learn later, if required.

Datadog‘s service is very good. I had no previous knowledge of its existence. What I only knew and came closest to this was the AWS CloudWatch service.

Although I read a lot of the documentation generated by the company I am working with and the one that Datadog itself has generated, I found myself somewhat disoriented on how to use and what the service could be used for. Fortunately, I found this book and reading it in its entirety, it has not only given me a practical perspective of the use of the service and the various resources for it, but also of the technology that it uses and to which it is directed. To which I must add the background elements that support the idea (purpose, form and end) behind the «monitoring».

The book is barely a year old. One already finds differences in some descriptions of the user interface of the service with what is described and illustrated in the book. Unfortunately, It may not be more than two years, four at the most, before the book is considered obsolete. That’s the downside of this type of business. Change very fast, aging with the same speed as what is generated around it.

In the meantime, I can say that this is a book that worth reading for those who are going to use Datadog, even if they have already received training on it. In addition to the explanations of the elements of support, service and tools, the book begins each chapter with a list of technological requirements to put into practice what will be seen and ends with a series of recommendations («good practices«) , with which the author of this work transmits that added value that only his experience in the subject can provide.