Lesson 5: How to Show Your Boss What They Need to Know

In the previous lessons, we covered the configuration of monitoring for your applications in various scenarios. Now that
your application monitoring is configured, your boss, your boss’s boss, and maybe even the CIO is going to want to
visualize this data. Let’s address an age-old problem in IT: displaying the data your boss needs in a way they can
understand. There are several layers to this problem, so let’s go through them.

First, you must determine the “what.” What data do you need to show, and at what level of detail do you need to show
it? Consider your audience. Is this for a mid-level manager? A network team lead? A CIO? Knowing the role and
responsibility of the person for whom you’re creating this display or dashboard will determine the level of detail.

As you consider the role of the consumer of this data, also consider the answer may lie in a mix-and-match style of data.
Your CIO likely doesn’t want to see the CPU load on an individual server, but they may be interested in a high-level
status of critical customer-facing applications. In smaller companies, they may also appreciate a display of the WAN link
status, for instance. Consider the needs of the data consumer in your creation of a display, dashboard, report, or
combination thereof.

Have a conversation with your boss about what they need and what they’d like to see. Your understanding and
communication will determine the success of your first draft. To truly be successful with your efforts on someone else’s
behalf, communication is key. Your first attempt will likely need to be altered or prompt additional requests.

Now that you’ve determined the level of detail of the data needed, you should determine how best to deliver this data.
Your monitoring platform likely has multiple methods for displaying data. High-level data would likely display better as a
chart, as a KPI widget, or on a map or diagram. More detailed data may be preferable in a tabular format, a report, or
something else.

Once you’ve created a dashboard, report, or other display for your data, share it with your boss. Preferably, do so in a
one-on-one meeting so they can ask questions or make further requests. Then, adjust as needed.

Let’s look at some examples from the SolarWinds® Orion® Platform. First, let’s look at a versatile example using a variety
of widgets in the modern dashboards. As you can see below, it combines high-level information and colorful visuals with
more detailed information.

Next, we can look at an example utilizing classic views. This example includes a bit more detail, as it’s filtered for a single
location. It lists the devices, current active alerts, and an Orion map displaying status and connection information.
Finally, we have a report with much more detailed information.
There are many options available for data display, and they provide the ability to drill down further for investigative
purposes. We encourage you to check out the prebuilt and custom resources and combine them to best effect.

So far in this course, we’ve covered automated actions, alerting, agent vs. agentless polling, monitoring Microsoft® Office
365®, and more. Now, I’ll be turning the course over to Leon to take you through monitoring containers. As containers
become more popular, you’ll be tasked (if you haven’t already) with monitoring containers, so we want to take a few
minutes of your time to discuss what this may look like.

For further information, please check out the resources below. We also encourage you to visit the THWACK® community
and the demo for ideas.

• Your Boss Wants Dashboards

• SolarWinds Lab™ Episode 88: Building Stellar Orion Reports From the Ground Up
• SolarWinds Lab Episode 89: 2020.2 Releases: Orion Map Updates, New Security Product Features, and More
• THWACKcamp™ 2020 session: Orion Dashboard Tuning: Making the Message Match the Audience
 • SolarWinds Orion Platform Documentation
o Create a Web-Based Report in the Orion Platform
o Orion Maps for Orion Platform Products
o Dashboards or Views

Best,
Chrystal