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CASE STUDYBetter Mortgage SpeedsKubernetes Troubleshootingwith Help from Mezmo“As our engineering team has grown, a top priority is making sure that all of our engineers know how touse the tools that we give them. And, as the Core Tech team, we can put sensible defaults in place toget them off on the right foot with Mezmo.” - Ethan Langevin, Senior Engineering Manager at Better
Quick SummaryINDUSTRYFinancial ServicesREQUIREMENTS Easy to deploy across multiple teamsCentralized loggingKubernetes supportReliable indexingEasy searchData visualizationsLong log retentionAbility to cross-reference logs withother data points Features for debugging and analyticsMEZMO SOLUTIONS Deployed across all engineering teams at Better Mezmo Kubernetes Agent andKubernetes Enrichment Google-like search syntax Boards, Graphs, and Screens 30-day log retention and easy archiving Easy to use alongside Datadog and other datamanagement toolsBUSINESS IMPACT All teams own their logging and monitoringand are empowered to own their applicationsend-to-end Reduces MTTD and MTTR Enables continuous delivery, which gives thema large competitive advantage against banksthat have old development processesand methodologies2CASE S T UDY: BE T T ER MOR TGAGE SP EED S K UBERNE T E S T R OUBL E SH OOT ING W I T H H EL P F R OM ME ZMO
Better Mortgage promises its customers a seamlessexperience for securing a mortgage. To deliver fullyon that promise, the company must ensure that itcan quickly identify, troubleshoot, and resolvesoftware performance and security issues thatarise within its IT environments.They included the ability to search through logs easily,cross-reference logs with other data points (such asalerts from Datadog, which the team uses formonitoring, but found too complex for logmanagement), and build meaningful visualizationsfrom log data.With the help of Mezmo, Better Mortgage was ableto build a software monitoring and analytics stackthat delivers the visibility its engineers need to findand fix problems fast. Read on for a look at whyBetter Mortgage migrated from an open sourceanalytics solution to Mezmo, and how Mezmo helpedthe company optimize the management of itscomplex, Kubernetes-based environments.Affordable long-term retention of log data was apriority as well, given the data retention rules thatBetter Mortgage faces within the tightly regulatedfinancial services industry. The fact that Mezmo canarchive logs to Amazon S3, the low-cost cloudstorage service, allows Better Mortgage to retainlog data for extended periods at an affordable price,which helps meet compliance requirements.The need for simpler,faster analyticsPerhaps most important of all, the team sought ananalytics tool that would be easy for all of itsengineers to use, regardless of their backgrounds orskill sets. “As our engineering team has grown, a toppriority is making sure that all of our engineersknow how to use the tools that we give them,” saidEthan Langevin, Senior Engineering Manager atBetter Mortgage.Better Mortgage’s Core Tech team, which managesinfrastructure tools, developer tools, core services,authorization, and all libraries, places a priority onminimizing MTTD and MTTR in order to alignengineering goals with business goals. To do that, theteam’s engineers need a fast and reliable way toanalyze log data associated with issues detected byits monitoring software.The team initially relied on Kibana, an open sourceanalytics tool, to help make sense of the datagenerated by its applications and infrastructure. Butthe tool proved difficult to use, especially fordevelopers not already familiar with its complexsearch syntax. It also required a lot of time tomaintain, because the team had to manage theplatform itself.In searching for a new analytics solution, BetterMortgage’s engineers identified a core set of featuresthat they needed in order to resolve problems faster.3CASE S T UDY: BE T T ER MOR TGAGE SP EED S K UBERNE T E S T R OUBL E SH OOT ING W I T H H EL P F R OM ME ZMO
Mezmo enableseasier log analysis forall engineersFull-fledgedsupport for Kuberneteslog analysisThe team found the features it required in Mezmo,which now supports all of the log analytics needs ofBetter Mortgage. The tool’s simple search syntaxand rich visualizations make it easy for all teammembers to use the platform. Currently, over onehundred engineers at Better Mortgage use Mezmoevery week.The team also benefits from Mezmo’s robustsupport for Kubernetes. Not only can Mezmo easilyingest and analyze Kubernetes log sources, but thetool’s Kubernetes Enrichment feature enablesMezmo to interpret the unique variables withinKubernetes environments. This helps engineerscorrelate events and understand behavior patternsin a Kubernetes cluster that would otherwise beobvious only through tedious manual analysis ofKubernetes events.With Mezmo, when the team receives an alert abouta potential issue with its systems, any engineer oncall can quickly open Mezmo, select the impactedservice, and track the history of the service todetermine how long the problem has beenhappening and when it originated. Engineers canalso determine whether similar issues haveoccurred in the past and detect patterns that helppinpoint their source, such as a problem that arisesat the same time each day or week.In addition, Mezmo has simplified security andcompliance needs for Better Mortgage’sengineering team. “Sometimes a user will ask us tolook into a security concern,” Langevin said, “we useMezmo to find the logs related to their request sothat we can tell them exactly what happened anddetermine whether the concern is merited.”Better Mortgage was one of the first Mezmocustomers to use the Kubernetes Enrichmentfeature when Mezmo introduced it in 2020. Thefeature has helped Better Mortgage take fulladvantage of Kubernetes to power its productionsoftware without suffering the visibility gaps thatoften arise when managing complex Kubernetesenvironments.“Logging is really important to being able to practice CD because itensures that the team can detect errors, perform discovery, andtroubleshoot problems quickly in the event that an issue arises.”- Ethan Langevin, Senior Engineering Manager at Better4CASE S T UDY: BE T T ER MOR TGAGE SP EED S K UBERNE T E S T R OUBL E SH OOT ING W I T H H EL P F R OM ME ZMO
ConclusionAbout MezmoBy leveraging Mezmo to streamline log analytics,Better Mortgage’s Core Tech team has not onlysimplified troubleshooting for Kubernetesenvironments, but has also laid the foundation for acomplete Continuous Delivery (CD) pipeline. “Loggingis really important to being able to practice CD,”Langevin explained, “because it ensures that theteam can detect errors, perform discovery, andtroubleshoot problems quickly in the event that anissue arises.” Mezmo enables Better to fix problemsrapidly, without disrupting the continuous flow oftheir CD pipeline.At Mezmo, everything starts with our mission:To help developers be more productive so they canfocus on what they love. We are a mission-driven,developer-first company. This mission is simple,but bold. We focus on logging because logs are thelifeblood for developers -- it is the core atomic unitfor how modern engineering teams understandwhat’s going on with their systems, monitor whatthey are doing, and get information they need totroubleshoot. Simply put, everything rests onyour logs.With a healthy CD process that is undergirded byMezmo, Better Mortgage enjoys the ability torelease software updates rapidly and, by extension,optimize the customer experience. “CD gives us abig competitive advantage compared to banks thathave old development processes andmethodologies,” Langevin said, adding that the fastrelease cycles that his team achieves areparticularly important during events like theCovid-19 pandemic, which made fast and continuousupdates to software systems critical.5Sign up for a fully-featured 14-day trial and optimizeyour logging workflow or reach out to our sales teamto create a plan tailored to your needs atoutreach@mezmo.com today.CASE S T UDY: BE T T ER MOR TGAGE SP EED S K UBERNE T E S T R OUBL E SH OOT ING W I T H H EL P F R OM ME ZMO
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archive logs to Amazon S3, the low-cost cloud storage service, allows Better Mortgage to retain log data for extended periods at an affordable price, . Architecting for Any Cloud.pdf Subject: LogDNA eBook - Architecting for Any Cloud.pdf Created Date: 5/22/2022 10:49:37 PM .
