In the modern world of e-commerce, customer expectations are sky-high: online shoppers are used to seamless user experiences, even with massive online retailers operating at scales that were previously unthinkable. Services like Shopify provide accessible modern storefronts and payment processes, reducing the need for significant backend work to get an online store up and running.

So, you’re browsing the web, adding items to your cart, maybe even entering your secret pizza recipe into an online form (we won’t judge). Ever wondered how all that sensitive information doesn’t end up in the hands of internet pirates? Enter SSL — which stands for Secure Sockets Layer.

What is uptime anyway? Behind any successful online operation is a resilient infrastructure and a team with a well-honed operational discipline dedicated to ensuring uptime metrics consistently meet the benchmarks required to fulfill service commitments. However, brief downtime can have serious repercussions when infrastructure falters or servers are pushed past their limits.

What are availability and uptime metrics and why should you measure them? In the past, development teams pushed new features, and operations teams handled issues as they arose. However, as more businesses pivot to a DevOps infrastructure, all IT teams work side by side throughout an application’s lifecycle, from coding and testing to deployment and monitoring.

Why do services need API monitoring? Application programming interfaces (APIs) have become indispensable for digital business. Forbes found that 98% of developers consider APIs to be crucial to getting their work done, and 86% of developers expected their use of APIs to increase. A survey by McKinsey found that 88% of banking companies believe APIs are increasing in importance; 81% think APIs are a priority for business and IT.

Synthetic monitoring (SM) uses script-based, simulated user interactions to assess the performance and reliability of websites, application program interfaces (APIs), and other digital services. These scripts can mimic typical user behaviors, such as logging in, completing a purchase, site navigation, etc., and run consistently from multiple locations so you get real-time feedback on how your systems handle different scenarios.

Imagine if every time your website had the hiccups, your customers started dialing support faster than you can say “downtime.” In the modern digital age, where patience is thinner than a smartphone and attention spans are shorter than a tweet, keeping your users informed is not just polite — it’s essential. So, what exactly is a status page? Think of it as your company’s health monitor, but without the awkward blood pressure cuff.

Uptime.com offers Real User Monitoring (RUM) as part of every subscription plan. RUM reporting provides a variety of insights into how users experience your website, packaged in a single report that offers an intuitive snapshot of user experiences. While Uptime.com can provide metrics and monitoring of performance, RUM enables real-time monitoring, collecting metrics that show how users interact with your site and how satisfied they are with its speed and stability.

Considering implementing load balancing? Slow websites and website downtime are more than just nuisances. One study found that slow-loading websites cost online retailers more than $77 billion each year in lost sales. Over half of consumers cite a slow webpage as the main reason for abandoning an online purchase, and just under half will not return to a website after a bad experience.