MONK Metrics

MONK metrics help you evaluate your internal development platform within DevOps. Like DevOps, you also need to measure the performance of Platform Engineering in your organization. Let’s explore MONK metrics in detail.

MONK stands for Monitoring, Observability, Networking, and Knowledge. Like other metrics, it also measures and accesses different aspects of platform engineering to evaluate the effectiveness of an internal development platform.

Key MONK Metrics:#

Now that you’ve grasped the basics of MONK let’s take a deeper dive into the framework. Imagine MONK as the base holding your platform engineering structure. Where each letter in MONK represents a pillar. Each pillar is significant for holding the structure.

Let’s explore all 4 pillars in all their glory.#

M- Monitoring:#

Monitoring is a crucial aspect of MONK metrics. Different aspects of your platform like health and performance are continuously monitored to ensure proper functioning. It's like having a team of assistants watching your every move. 

Monitoring helps you stay informed on every aspect of your platform. Monitoring allows you to identify and resolve issues early on. By addressing issues early you can make prevent big disasters.

O- Observability:#

Observability is the second pillar of MONK metrics. It goes beyond monitoring and allows you to go deeper into platform engineering. Observability allows you to find issues that are not visible at the surface level. It is like having an X-ray vision of the situation to understand it better.

It allows you to answer questions like:

  • What's happening inside the system? 
  • Why did that issue occur?
  • How can we prevent it from happening again?

Observability allows you to make informed decisions based on facts and figures. It also helps you increase collaboration between different teams. 

N-  Networking:#

Networking is also a crucial part of the MONK metric. Networking ensures different teams within platform engineering have smooth data flow and communication within the internal development platform is seamless.

It emphasizes connecting different aspects of a platform including physical hardware, software, and the flow of information between different components. 

Networking is crucial because it increases reliability and redundancy ensuring that your platform can keep going even in case of any issues. It also helps you solve scalability issues. It ensures you can scale effectively whether you have a small platform or a big one.

You can optimize networking in platform engineering by monitoring the health and performance of your network. You can utilize efficient routing to ensure traffic takes the optimal path. Also use firewalls, encryptions, and security protocols to keep your network secure.

K-  Knowledge: #

Knowledge is also a crucial aspect of MONK metrics. It encompasses all the information available to platform engineering teams. It ensures all the decisions made are based on proven results. This makes the whole process more predictable and cost-effective.

Teams must learn from their previous mistakes and correct them. It’s about understanding the knowledge, not just having it. For example, imagine a scenario where you need to troubleshoot a server and you have all the knowledge at your disposal. But you don't understand anything from it. The knowledge is of no use to you.

Here are some key knowledge aspects every organization must focus on:

  • Documentation
  • Training and Skill Development
  • Knowledge Sharing
  • Incident Post Mortems

You can foster knowledge in platform engineering by:

  • Documenting everything from code to configuration.
  • Training your teams with the latest technology and keeping them up to date.
  • Fostering a culture of collaboration and communication where new employees can learn from their seniors.
  • Periodically review and update your documentation and knowledge repositories to keep them up to date.