Third-Party Monitoring Tools

While Azure Monitor, Container Insights, and managed Prometheus/Grafana provide robust monitoring for most AKS scenarios, many organisations choose to supplement or extend their observability with third-party solutions. These tools can offer additional features, integrations, or user experiences that may be better suited to specific operational needs or existing workflows.

Why Consider Third-Party Monitoring?

  • Unified Observability: Many third-party platforms allow you to monitor not just AKS, but also other cloud platforms, on-premises infrastructure, and a wide range of applications from a single pane of glass.
  • Advanced Analytics and AI: Some tools provide enhanced analytics, anomaly detection, and AI-driven insights that go beyond standard metric and log collection.
  • Custom Integrations: If your organisation already uses a particular monitoring or incident management platform, integrating AKS monitoring into that system can streamline operations and reporting.
  • Specialised Features: Features such as service maps, distributed tracing, synthetic monitoring, and advanced alerting may be more mature or easier to use in certain third-party tools.
  • Datadog: Offers deep Kubernetes integration, real-time dashboards, distributed tracing, and AI-powered alerts. Datadog can ingest metrics, logs, and traces from AKS and other sources, providing a unified view of your environment.
  • New Relic: Provides full-stack observability, including Kubernetes cluster explorer, application performance monitoring, and distributed tracing.
  • Sysdig: Focuses on security and monitoring for containers and Kubernetes, with features such as runtime security, compliance, and deep visibility into container activity.
  • Dynatrace: Delivers automated observability with AI-driven root cause analysis, application performance monitoring, and Kubernetes-aware dashboards.
  • k9s: A terminal-based UI for real-time Kubernetes cluster management and troubleshooting, popular for its speed and simplicity.

Datadog Dashboard Datadog Dashboard

How Third-Party Tools Fit In

Third-party monitoring solutions can be used alongside Azure-native and managed open-source tools. For example, you might use Azure Monitor and Container Insights for baseline monitoring, managed Prometheus/Grafana for custom metrics and dashboards, and a third-party platform for advanced analytics or to integrate with your broader IT operations. When choosing a third-party tool, consider factors such as:

  • Existing organisational tooling and expertise
  • Compliance and data residency requirements
  • Integration with incident management or ticketing systems
  • Cost and licensing models