Catchpoint’s story grabs you from the start. The team launched in 2008, spun out of Google after the DoubleClick deal, so they built their platform on real‑world experience. At Cloud Field Day 22, they showcased how Internet Performance Monitoring (IPM) links every metric to actual user impact.
What Is IPM?
IPM goes beyond raw network data. It tracks page loads, API calls, DNS lookups and every hop in between—from a user’s browser through CDNs back to your origin servers. Instead of siloed network or app views, IPM ties every data point to the customer’s view of your site or service.
Is It Down, or Just for Me?
You’ve run the drill: someone reports Site X is offline. You spin up browsers on different machines, ping from work, ping from home, open a VPN. IPM replaces that manual check with dozens of global and last‑mile agents that test availability every minute. When one or more agents fail, you see the outage map in seconds—no guessing required.
Synthetic vs. Real User Monitoring
- Synthetic tests run scripts around the clock. They catch repeatable errors under controlled conditions.
- Real User Monitoring (RUM) injects tiny beacons into production code. Every real session—every browser, every device—feeds performance data back to the dashboard.
Together, they show both expected flows and unexpected edge‑case issues, like a misbehaving browser extension or a spike in mobile‑network latency.
The advantage to integrating IPM in your build flow is that you can optimize experience before the call comes in. You can also clearly identify where issues are occurring in a way that is
Slow Is the New Down
A site that hangs at 3 seconds instead of 0.5 seconds? That’s a silent killer. Shoppers bail, leads vanish, and search rankings slip. Google’s Core Web Vitals now factor into SEO. If your pages crawl, you lose visibility—and revenue. IPM flags these slowdowns in real time, so you fix speed before it becomes a conversion problem.
Beyond Round‑Trip Time
Round‑Trip Time (RTT) still matters, but it only covers the first byte. What about DNS delays, TLS handshakes, third‑party scripts or back‑end queuing? IPM breaks out every segment—DNS to CDN, CDN to origin, database queries, even front‑end render times—so you pinpoint the actual drag.
Full Stack, Full Experience Context
Traditionally, network folks live in one silo, app teams in another. IPM tears down that wall. With integrations for tools like Dynatrace and native support for OpenTelemetry feeds, Catchpoint layers network metrics, app traces and infrastructure signals in one view.
You see that a slow checkout flow stemmed from a misrouted API call, not a flaky link.
Agents Everywhere
Catchpoint runs hundreds of monitoring points worldwide: major cloud regions, corporate networks and last‑mile residential links. Those agents power both synthetic tests and passive RUM collection. The global footprint means you uncover geo‑specific issues—like a European CDN node that dropped packets—often before your users even notice.
Demo Highlights and Takeaways
In the live demo, the team simulated a sudden drop in performance across Europe. Within moments, IPM’s dashboard zeroed in on a misconfigured PoP. The fix rolled out in under five minutes, cutting error rates by 90%. That speed wins back customer trust before complaints even hit your help desk.
IPM still faces the challenge of noise—too many alerts or too much data can bury the signal. Catchpoint counters that with smart thresholds and anomaly warnings, so you only see what truly demands attention.
My Opinion on the Catchpoint Value
IPM ties every layer—network, app, infrastructure—back to the user’s view. Catchpoint’s global agents and integrations make it practical to catch and fix issues before they become outages, slowdowns or lost sales. Thanks to the Catchpoint team for a crisp and solidly delivered session at Cloud Field Day 22.