For those living in a cave for the last 8 years or so Zapier is a glue of things. It binds API codes together and allows simple people to do extraordinary things.
We recently looked at creating a solution to cater for companies providing IT support London in particular because we have a vested interested in this particular project which goes beyond the scope of this article.
Server Uptime
We have previously used software with a hefty price tag such as GFX for server monitoring with the addons which are not cheap and yet at times unnecessary.
Enter Zapier – the glue to bind all things together.
Our remit was to alert several nodes including multiple SMS message should errors of a variety in nature should occur when any server went down. There are already plenty of commercial software solutions to this issue but we wanted to see if we were able to slash the price tag and DIY in house.
Please note that WE ARE NOT DEVELOPERS. We are a mixed bag of “talent (if you like)” business solution finders which includes marketing & IT solutions and Zapier is our go to choice solution for many applications.
SERVER GOES DOWN > SEND MULTIPLE SMS MESSAGE TO KEY TEAM MEMBERS AND THE BOSS
SERVER GOES DOWN > IF THE SERVER IS CRITICAL AND FALL BACK FAILS > SEND EMAILS TO ALL PARTIES AFFECTED EXPLAINING THE REQUIREMENT FOR MAINENANCE
SERVER GOES DOWN > JOB IS RAISED WITHIN ASANA FOR TASK MANAGEMENT > PROGRESSION IS MONITORED AGAIN WITH SMS AND EMAIL
SERVER GOES DOWN > NEW GROUPS CREATED IN WHATSAPP AND SLACK > WHATSAPP IS FOR NON TECHIES > SLACK FOR TECH SOLUTIONS
This is the outline we wanted to achieve.
https://zapier.com/apps/categories/server-monitoring
We used apps from this location plus several others and we are pleased to say it works a treat.
We are now offering this scripted solution to customers as a commercial solution.
The key take away for this short project description is to show that with the right attitude and know how it is not necessary to invest into commercial solutions when the simplest one is usually the best. We believe a solution should be made simple but no simpler (Einstein?) but in our world definitely not any more complex or expensive than they need to be. If you haven’t used Zapier before we recommend you check it out and think of ways you can created non dev scripts to automate and improve your working processes.
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