Alert Manager: The Next Generation

Our last blog post discussed how “Alert Manager” was created and about the the unexpected success after the Apptitude contest. Running an open-source project comes with its own distinct set of challenges. One of the most common misconceptions about open-source software is that it is not “free” for everyone. Indeed, the maintainers have to invest much time and commit to the project on top of a full-time job.

Over the years, the time to add new features, fix bugs, and support users have become sparse. In addition, Splunk changed as a platform and introduced new frameworks and APIs. Another challenge is the rising market share of Splunk Cloud, which presents further challenges and a tight set of policies.

While these are necessary and relevant, they also created tremendous additional work to support legacy applications. As a result, the technical debt from what started as a hackathon slowly turned into a truly significant amount of time, effort and responsibility to our user base.

For many years, I’ve been thinking about a “Alert Manager” powered by a next-generation code base developed according to modern software development standards and considering the evolution of Splunk platforms. After thinking about what a future “Alert Manager” should look like, I started thinking about how a new version of “Alert Manager” would be feasible. Software development needs substantial resources and funding. Having started my own company a few years ago helps finance my vision of a rehauled, innovative “Alert Manager”. As a CEO who writes code himself, I wanted to keep software development in-house and be able to reach out to the developers directly for their ideas.

A year ago, I hired a developer who devoted his time to developing a new code base. In addition, the growing team of consultants supports with their experience and proficiency earned while working on all kinds of projects and environments. Although creating something from scratch is a challenge that should not be underestimated, I can promise you that the next generation of “Alert Manager” is around the corner and will be called “Alert Manager Enterprise”.

Come back soon to find out where we are on this exciting journey and learn about our most significant challenge while developing a modern web application running completely within Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud.