During the last few days, I witnessed a number of discussions on forums, such as WebHostingTalk, when people encountered sudden site problems and were blaming hosting providers for unexpected downtimes.
What always makes me amazed is the fact most owners of sites do not think that problems are much easier to prevent, than to handle. Only a few seek to monitor the Web site activity, its ervices and their stability. I believe those few do never try to claim someone else' responsible for their sites' problems.
An average Web site nowadays is no more a collection of static pages, along with several communication and feedback features, like a guestbook. Scripting languages, rich content and high level of interaction are common for modern sites. The more is the number of features used, the more is the number of services vital for the site functioning.
Even if site is not a true Web 2.0 site (i.e., content isn't created by the site users), interaction is the basic feature that must always be available. The more interaction is assumed, the more care should be taken to keep an eye on all the site's features working as expected.
It is necessary to have an ability to be warned on every possible problem with the site (connectivity problem, high load time, certain pages unavailable and so on). Any problem with the site may affect adversely the whole Web site. It is simply impossible to do the monitoring by hand; the more complex and interactive a site grows, the more is a need in automated means of monitoring.
For example, the pages of crucial importance could be feedback/contact forms. If anything wrong is going on, the inability to inform site administrators could cost you quite a number of visitors. It is a rare case nowadays that email addresses are published on the site in explicit form, but even if they are and if email is processed by the same server the site lives on, any server problem means the site is effectively cut off any communication.
Thus, creating several monitors testing all the vital site features is a condition sine qua non, and the idea is: you should never be told by customers your site is in trouble. You should know of any possible problems first to take action quickly.
