In this Q&A Mehdi Daoudi, CEO of Catchpoint chats about how to prevent digital disruptions with innovations like Experience Level Objectives (XLOs) and advanced network visualization tools, emphasizes the importance of both performance and security in enhancing user experiences.
————————-
Hi Mehdi, Please brief us on your journey in the ad tech space and your role at Catchpoint.
My journey in the ad tech space began with more than a decade at DoubleClick and Google, where I played a pivotal role in ensuring the quality of services. My responsibilities spanned buying, building, deploying, and using internal and external monitoring solutions to oversee the DART infrastructure, which handles billions of transactions daily. This experience was both challenging and enlightening, particularly when I inadvertently caused a multi-million-dollar system failure by deleting a critical file. Living through this outage as an IT professional was a turning point for me, underscoring the need for robust monitoring and resilience in digital infrastructure, and thankfully DoubleClick still went on to be acquired by Google in a $3.1 billion dollar deal.
In 2008, I founded Catchpoint with a clear vision inspired by my experiences in IT. At Catchpoint, we aim to prevent the very failures I once encountered, ensuring that other companies do not face similar disruptions. As CEO, I lead our mission to enhance Internet resilience, leveraging the largest observability network with more nodes and test types across the delivery chain. This allows us to catch issues before they escalate into major incidents.
Also Read: How CFOs and CIOs are Collaborating to Drive IT ROI
Our clients include some of the world’s biggest enterprises, such as Google, SAP, Microsoft, Comcast, and Dell. We are on the road to achieving $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), driven by our commitment to delivering unparalleled digital experience monitoring solutions. At Catchpoint, we continue to innovate and expand our capabilities, ensuring that our customers can rely on a resilient and seamless digital experience.
Can you highlight a recent innovation at Catchpoint that significantly improved your clients’ digital experience management?
One of our most recent innovations is the introduction of Experience Level Objectives (XLOs). While traditional metrics often focus solely on system uptime, XLOs shift the spotlight to user experience by measuring critical elements like First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). This approach provides a real-world view of website performance, allowing our clients to gain deeper insights into how their digital experiences are perceived by users.
The recent global outage stemming from a botched CrowdStrike update serves as a reminder of the fragility and high stakes of our digital infrastructure. Just as CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform emphasizes the need for robust, real-time threat detection and response, our XLOs are designed to address the performance aspects that impact user satisfaction. By aligning our metrics with actual user experience, we help clients address issues proactively and ensure their digital platforms can handle real-world challenges effectively. This innovation has already enabled our clients to enhance their digital experiences significantly, aligning performance metrics with true user perceptions and preparing them better for unforeseen disruptions.
How does Catchpoint’s platform leverage network visualization and big infrastructure scalability to enhance performance analysis?
Our Internet Stack Map is a game-changer for performance analysis. Here’s how it leverages network visualization and infrastructure scalability to enhance how we understand and manage performance. Firstly, Internet Stack Map offers a live, real-time visualization of your entire digital service environment. Imagine having a map that not only shows you your application’s components but also tracks their health and performance continuously. This is especially crucial today when applications are often a patchwork of internal systems and third-party services like cloud providers and APIs.
The platform automatically discovers all these elements—whether they’re part of your own infrastructure or external dependencies. By creating a comprehensive, up-to-date view of your Internet Stack, it enables IT teams to see exactly what’s happening in real time. This helps in quickly pinpointing where issues are arising, whether from internal code, external services, or somewhere in between.
Internet Stack Map also integrates seamlessly with Catchpoint’s existing performance monitoring tools. This means you get enhanced alerting and more detailed insights into the status of each component. When a problem occurs, you can easily determine if it’s within your control or due to an external factor, reducing the need for extensive troubleshooting or expensive war rooms.
This real-time visibility and detailed mapping ensure that issues are identified and resolved faster, keeping your applications running smoothly and maintaining a high-quality user experience. It’s about turning complex, distributed systems into something that’s easier to manage and understand, so you can stay ahead of potential problems and keep your digital services resilient.
Also Read: Top Misconceptions Around Data Operations and Breaking Down the Role of a VP of Data Ops
What new trends in digital experience management are influencing Catchpoint’s approach to these solutions, and how is the company adapting to these trends?
One of the most significant trends in digital experience management is the shift towards comprehensive, user-centric metrics that go beyond traditional system availability. While uptime and availability metrics are crucial, businesses are focusing on understanding how users experience their digital platforms. This shift reflects a broader recognition that user satisfaction is deeply tied to performance factors such as load times, responsiveness, and overall usability.
At Catchpoint, we’re actively responding to this trend by evolving our approach to include a range of advanced metrics and insights. Beyond Experience Level Objectives (XLOs), we are integrating real-time user journey analytics, synthetic transaction monitoring, and end-to-end visibility into our platform. These enhancements allow us to track not just when and where performance issues occur but also how these issues impact user interactions and satisfaction.
For instance, our Platform of AI-powered Internet Performance Monitoring solutions includes real user monitoring (RUM) that complements our existing tools by providing granular insights into individual user experiences. This means we can identify performance bottlenecks specific to certain user segments or geographical regions and address them with targeted interventions. Additionally, our synthetic transaction monitoring simulates user interactions to proactively identify potential issues before they affect real users, ensuring a smoother experience across various scenarios.
It’s hard to miss the troubles Delta is having recovering from the IT outage and the company’s struggles show firsthand the importance of comprehensive monitoring. It’s a vivid example of how dependent we are on seamless digital experiences and how critical it is to have systems in place that provide both reactive and proactive insights. By embracing these trends and expanding our monitoring capabilities, Catchpoint equips clients with the tools to not only meet current performance expectations but to anticipate and mitigate potential challenges in an increasingly complex digital landscape. This proactive and user-focused approach helps our clients enhance their digital experiences, manage performance more effectively, and stay ahead of evolving user demands and market dynamics.
How does Catchpoint incorporate internet security and malware detection into its platform to protect clients from potential threats?
We believe that monitoring for performance and security should go hand in hand. Think of it like keeping an eye on your health: you wouldn’t just monitor your heart rate without considering other vital signs. Similarly, we don’t just track how well your digital systems are performing; we also keep a close watch for any signs of security issues. Our platform is designed to spot unusual behavior or potential threats in real-time. This includes everything from detecting abnormal traffic patterns that might suggest a DDoS attack to spotting vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malware. According to our recent Internet Resilience Report, 43% of digital business leaders surveyed estimate a total economic impact or loss of more than $1 million monthly due to Internet outages or degradations. Some Internet outages even cost some companies upward of $10 million a month, making even clearer the importance of Internet Resilience in our always-on, digital-first world. By integrating these security checks into our performance monitoring, we help our clients stay ahead of potential problems before they escalate into serious issues. This approach ensures that while you’re keeping your digital operations running smoothly, you’re also protected against threats that could compromise your systems. It’s about creating a safe and efficient digital environment where performance and security work together seamlessly.
Also Read: The Dynamic Duo: How CMOs and CIOs Are Shaping the Future of Business
What are your thoughts on the future of website performance analytics, and how can businesses leverage new techniques to stay ahead of performance challenges?
The future of website performance analytics is all about blending traditional metrics with deeper user insights. Instead of just focusing on uptime or speed, businesses need to look at how these factors impact real user experiences. One exciting trend is using behavioral analytics and user sentiment analysis. By tracking how users interact with a site and gathering their feedback, we can get a clearer picture of their experience. Metrics like click paths and heatmaps help identify where users struggle, giving us actionable insights to improve.
We’re also seeing a rise in real-time performance benchmarking. This means constantly comparing your site’s performance against industry standards and competitors. It’s a great way to spot areas for improvement and stay ahead of the game. AI and machine learning are game changers here. They let us predict potential issues before they impact users by analyzing patterns and anomalies. Moreover, integrating multi-channel analytics helps us understand performance across different devices and platforms, ensuring a seamless user experience everywhere.
Recent global disruptions really highlight the need for robust performance monitoring. By adopting these advanced techniques and staying proactive, businesses can better handle performance challenges and keep up with evolving user demands.
Before we conclude, what are your top tips for startup leaders on optimizing system performance and elevating user experience?
Here’s what I’d recommend for startup leaders:
- Invest in Solid Monitoring: Start strong by setting up a comprehensive performance monitoring system. This will help you spot and fix issues before they affect your users.
- Focus on User-Centric Metrics: Pay attention to metrics that matter to users, like load times and responsiveness, not just system uptime. It’s about how your users experience your service.
- Stay Agile and Scalable: Make sure your infrastructure and monitoring tools can grow with your business. Flexibility is key to handling more users and data as you expand.
- Learn from Mistakes: When performance issues come up, use them as learning opportunities. Figure out what went wrong and use that knowledge to improve and prevent future problems.
Thank you, Mehdi, for sharing your insights with us.
[To share your insights with us as part of editorial or sponsored content, please write to psen@itechseries.com]
Mehdi Daoudi is CEO and co-founder of Catchpoint, the Internet Resilience company, which he started in 2008. His experience in IT inspired him to build the digital experience platform he envisioned as a user. He spent more than ten years at Google and DoubleClick, where he was responsible for quality of services, buying, building, deploying, and using internal and external monitoring solutions to keep an eye on the DART infrastructure, which delivers billions of transactions a day.
