Learn how Gannett used AppDynamics to make performance data actionable so product and development teams could collaborate to resolve issues faster by knowing exactly what the impact is of a performance problem and where to look to resolve it with correlated server side snapshots and combined Real-User and Synthetic monitoring to provide: -Consistent/Repeatable data for more sensitive and faster alerting -Deeper diagnostic data -Very specific availability/functionality monitoring of critical user flows -Assertions on page content/behavior -Dynamic baselines for tighter and more realistic performance thresholds This deck was originally presented at AppSphere 2015

1. Breaking the News: Delivering Content
with Actionable Performance Data
Al Kemner, Principal Engineer - Gannett

2. GANNETT
Gannett Co., Inc. is a next-generation media company committed to strengthening
communities across our network.
• 500+ digital products
• 116 brands
• 110 markets internationally
• 114 Million unique visitors
• Serves 1.8 Billion Monthly User Minutes
• Reaches 45% of the US online internet population(age 18+)
Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 2

3. GANNETT
Powerhouse brands such as USA TODAY, Detroit Free Press, and Arizona Republic,
Democrat & Chronicle and many more.
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4. Overview
• What problem are we trying to solve?
• Visibility Into End Users Performance
• Independent Monitor for End User Performance
• Overcoming Culture
• Q/A
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5. Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 5

6. Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 6

7. Visibility Into End Users Performance
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8. Visibility Into End Users Performance
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9. Visibility Into End Users Performance
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Server-side
snapshots

10. Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 10
Visibility Into End Users Performance

11. Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 11
Visibility Into End Users Performance

12. Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 12
Visibility Into End Users Performance

13. Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 13
Visibility Into End Users Performance

14. Independent Monitor for End User Performance
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• Having something we can trust
• Monitoring of critical user flows
• Correlating user performance to the backend(s)

15. Real Browsers
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Geographic Distribution

17. Flexible Job Schedules
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Flexible Job Schedules

19. Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 19
Flexible Cost Management

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Flexible Cost Management

21. Job Retry
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Jobs will retry on
• Error(assertion failed)
• Timeout
• Performance thresholds

22. Job Timeout change to 5secs
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23. Performance Thresholds
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24. Reliable Connection Speeds
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25. Monitoring of critical user flows
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Monitoring of critical user flows

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Monitoring of critical user flows

28. Monitoring of critical user flows
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29. Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 29
Monitoring of critical user flows

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Monitoring of critical user flows

31. Copyright © 2015 AppDynamics. All rights reserved. 31
Monitoring of critical user flows

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Monitoring of critical user flows

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Monitoring of critical user flows

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Monitoring of critical user flows

35. Server-side correlation
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36. Server-side correlation
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37. Server-side correlation
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38. Server-side correlation
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39. Overcoming Culture
• Don’t fall into using the product reactively
• EVERY alert actionable will drive product usage
– Setup one pristine example
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40. Q/A
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41. Thank You