SaaS is a cloud-based model for delivering software applications over the network rather than requiring users to install and maintain them locally on their computers. Its growing dominance in enterprise IT presents some unique challenges regarding network monitoring. Traditional methodologies often fall short of comprehensively monitoring SaaS performance due to the distributed, “cloud-first” approach prevalent in most SaaS setups.
When using SaaS, the user experience is shaped by diverse and unpredictable network paths, not just application performance. However, conventional monitoring methods focus on the network infrastructure you own, while SaaS uses infrastructure you don’t own. This means that you have limited visibility of the ISP and cloud edge networks.
This article explores best practices for implementing SaaS monitoring to develop robust network management strategies. We will also examine why internet-aware monitoring using intelligent agents gives Catchpoint a key edge over conventional monitoring approaches.
Summary of key SaaS monitoring concepts
Best practices and technologies
SaaS monitoring requires a specialized approach to ensure a comprehensive and accurate representation of network operations and usage. For this purpose, the following best practices and technologies should be used.
Intelligent agents
Arguably, one of the most important components of any monitoring system designed to provide a comprehensive visualization of a distributed system, such as SaaS, is the use of intelligent agents. Distributed, strategically placed intelligent agents can examine the end-user experience in real time from various geographical locations and network vantage points.
Such agents are able to go beyond cloud regions and monitor last-mile infrastructure, ISP paths, as well as CDN points of access. SaaS performance degradation can be observed with greater accuracy and clarity than would be possible using only internal conventional monitoring tools.
Full Internet Stack visibility
Having visibility into all the components and mechanisms that contribute to the operation of SaaS is an essential aspect of SaaS monitoring. Beyond application operation, SaaS performance relies on a comprehensive set of network protocols and mechanisms. These mechanisms can be thought of as the Internet Stack. Specifically, the Internet Stack includes services such as DNS lookups, BGP propagation, CDN caching and delivery, ISP and transit paths, as well as endpoint and device quality.
Any SaaS monitoring infrastructure must provide holistic observability across all these layers, as SaaS depends directly on all of them for proper operation.
Leveraging the Stack Map
Utilizing tools and utilities that provide holistic observability is highly beneficial for achieving the required visibility across the Internet stack for SaaS applications. Catchpoint’s Internet Stack Map is an excellent example of such a utility.
The Stack Map diagnostic tool correlates and displays performance data across all layers of the Internet stack, from DNS to BGP, from CDN to ISP and application layers, all in real-time. It is an invaluable tool for identifying performance problems that may arise from the complex, interdependent aspects of SaaS deployment.
In SaaS deployments, numerous issues may arise beyond the application itself. Tools like Stack Map enable ICT teams to view all layers together, clearly indicating interdependencies and making it much simpler to pinpoint the true origin of a service degradation or outage, especially in multi-region, multi-provider SaaS environments.
SaaS synthetic monitoring
Synthetic monitoring simulates user interactions, network operations, and traffic patterns from various locations at regular intervals. It proactively observes network and application behavior even in the absence of real user traffic.
Synthetic monitoring involves executing automated scripts that mimic typical user behavior. For SaaS applications, this can include running a particular application and performing specific tasks. This helps to deal with issues proactively and in a controlled environment. With appropriate design, synthetic monitoring can approximate real traffic to a high degree, taking into account both geographic diversity and useful benchmarking and SLA validation.
Real user monitoring (RUM)
Unlike synthetic monitoring, real user monitoring (RUM) observes how real users experience the SaaS applications and how real network traffic patterns emerge from such usage. RUM captures metrics from actual browsers and end devices, and is typically deployed using intelligent agents on the end devices themselves.
RUM complements synthetic monitoring, filling any gaps in understanding the full range of network and SaaS application behavior under various conditions. RUM is especially critical for mobile-heavy SaaS deployments and for identifying variability in real-world performance, aspects that cannot be fully observed with a synthetic monitoring approach.
SLA and alert management
Effective SaaS monitoring is highly dependent on how well an organization responds to specific events. While monitoring provides visibility into performance and availability, it is the timely and appropriate response to changing conditions that truly safeguards service quality.
SLAs serve as benchmarks for acceptable performance, helping to ensure that the user experience remains consistently high, even during unexpected disruptions or degradations.
To support SLAs, automated responses must be carefully designed in conjunction with intelligent alerting mechanisms that notify the appropriate ICT personnel. These systems should not only react swiftly to incidents but also prioritize them based on severity and impact. Employing smart alerting techniques that can distinguish genuine issues from noise enables teams to detect anomalies promptly and take precise, effective action.
Recommendations and implementation tips
Deploy intelligent agents as close as possible to users. Intelligent agents should be strategically positioned, both geographically and logically, close to end-users. By doing so, you can gain accurate visibility and detect localized issues that would otherwise be invisible from a more centralized viewpoint.
Utilize the Stack Map for more effective troubleshooting. Viewing the full Internet Stack Map helps to pinpoint performance bottlenecks and identify precisely where failures or slowdowns are occurring. Issues due to complex interrelationships between various Internet Layers can be observed with greater clarity.
Balance RUM and synthetic monitoring. By leveraging telemetry from both, you can gain a more comprehensive SaaS monitoring visualization experience.
Configure SLAs and alerts within the optimal threshold. Strike a balance that ensures rapid response to genuine issues while avoiding excessive or unnecessary notifications that can contribute to alert fatigue.
Use SaaS monitoring for validating the delivery of SaaS services via SLAs. SaaS monitoring should be actively employed to hold vendors accountable to their promised service levels.
Integrate SaaS with DevOps and incident management to create a positive feedback loop for continuous improvement. By feeding real-time performance data and incident insights back into development and operations teams, organizations can proactively address recurring issues, fine-tune application behavior, and enhance deployment practices.
Last thoughts
SaaS is a technological development that has gained considerable momentum over the past few years. 2025 SaaS statistics indicate that, on average, companies are expected to use 112 SaaS applications, up from 80 in 2020.
As businesses increasingly adopt SaaS applications and more software solutions are delivered through SaaS platforms, the need for comprehensive SaaS monitoring continues to grow in importance and urgency. Understanding the nuances involved and the unique challenges that are faced in SaaS monitoring is an essential step in ensuring the reliable and continuous operation of such services.
