Cloudbot is a Microsoft Teams app that lets you fetch your DevOps analytics insights from Azure for analysis on Teams. It is built and supported by the software development company, FreevolutLTD, which specialises in analytics connectors for the Teams environment. FreevolutLTD has another handy app for Teams users – a Google Analytics insights tool that lets you monitor your GA and Facebook trends for Teams.
Coming back to Cloudbot for Azure, the app was launched in June of 2018 and has been available for download on Microsoft AppSource for the last three years. It is purpose-built for conversational interfaces, integrating with Slack and Microsoft Teams to deliver analytics insights via chatbot conversations. Cloudbot for Azure essentially links with the Azure Application Insights feature on your Azure Monitor service. Azure Application Insights allows developers to collect application performance information from various sources, including PowerBI, Visual Studio, and even third-party apps via REST APIs. Depending on the maturity of your analytics landscape on Azure Application Insights, you can view real-time updates on Teams using the Cloudbot Connector.
Importantly, Cloudbot for Azure is a paid app, starting at $10 per month for each app you integrate (i.e., Teams or Slack). Its core value proposition is that it delivers comprehensive data insights from Azure to Teams without any code-based setup. Let us review the app in more detail.
Inside Cloudbot for Azure for Microsoft Teams
Here are a few prerequisites to remember before installing Cloudbot for the Azure app. First, you must have an active Azure account running projects on PowerBI, Visual Studio, or any other service. Next, you need to have a properly set up Azure Application Insights instance that will aggregate performance metrics from various sources. Once these are in place, you can connect Azure with Teams using the Cloudbot tool.
Head to Microsoft AppSource and download the Cloudbot for Azure app. You can also register for a Cloudbot account here.
Cloudbot for Azure enables the following key functionalities in Teams:
- Prebuilt reports – The app makes generating reports from your Azure Application Insights metrics radically simple. Users can access more than 50 prebuilt reports within the app, and you can always create your own. Prebuilt reports track common KPIs like peak usage, failure trends, and uptime.
- Exceptions tracker – The Cloudbot for Azure has a nifty exception tracker that will let you know whenever something goes wrong (or looks suspicious). You can set your exception thresholds, and the app will inform you on Teams whenever that threshold is breached. Exception messages are colour coded so that you are visually alerted to action items that require your urgent attention. Cloudbot allows you to fetch data on a monitored app’s third-party dependencies.
- Real-time insights – The most significant advantage of using Cloudbot for Azure is that you get notified in real time without opening the Azure Application Insights service or, indeed, a dashboard. And, as soon as you receive an urgent real-time alert, you can send it to a colleague for immediate action – no dashboard login or report-sharing required.
- Customisable metrics – The Cloudbot for Azure app makes it easy to choose the specific metrics you want to monitor. You can select 50+ graphs for different metrics right out of the box and these can be turned on/off at any time so that you receive only those relevant metrics.
- Hourly snapshots – You can set the app up to send you regular alerts and updates on application performance. We were happy to see that there is an hourly snapshot feature, sending you a quick summary graph of app performance every hour covering the relevant metrics.
- Segmentation and analysis – Cloudbot for Azure supports advanced analysis beyond scheduled reports or one-off exception alerts. For example, you can segment usage, drill down on performance per the client’s operating system, and review trends for a specific period.
Why the Cloudbot for Azure App Makes a Difference
The app visualises data from Azure Application Insights in a simple yet informative manner, fitting seamlessly into the conversational flow on Microsoft Teams.
What we Think
The Cloudbot for Azure app can save Dev teams a lot of effort in root cause analysis, exception monitoring, performance monitoring, and metrics-to-trend conversion. At only $10 per month, we think this is an excellent investment – download it here.
