Top SaaS Vendors DevOps Teams Should Monitor in 2025

Modern applications rely on dozens of third-party services to function properly. When these services fail, your application fails too. DevOps teams need to identify and monitor the top SaaS vendors that could impact their infrastructure and user experience.

This guide covers the essential SaaS vendors DevOps teams should monitor, organized by category and criticality. We'll explore why each vendor matters and what specific aspects require monitoring.

Cloud Infrastructure Providers

Cloud infrastructure forms the backbone of most modern applications, and these vendors require the highest level of attention in a third-party monitoring dashboard.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS powers roughly 32% of the cloud infrastructure market. Monitor these critical services:

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) for compute resources
S3 (Simple Storage Service) for object storage
RDS (Relational Database Service) for managed databases
CloudFront for content delivery
Route 53 for DNS services

Each AWS service has its own status page, making comprehensive monitoring challenging without aggregation tools.

Microsoft Azure

Azure holds approximately 23% market share and requires monitoring of:

Virtual Machines for compute
Azure Storage for data persistence
Azure SQL Database for relational data
Azure CDN for content delivery
Azure Active Directory for authentication

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

GCP's critical services include:

Compute Engine for virtual machines
Cloud Storage for object storage
Cloud SQL for managed databases
Cloud CDN for content delivery
Cloud DNS for domain name resolution

Authentication and Identity Providers

Authentication failures can lock out entire user bases. Monitor these providers closely:

Auth0

Auth0 handles authentication for thousands of applications. Monitor:

Authentication API availability
Management API responsiveness
Regional endpoint status
Rate limit thresholds

Okta

Okta provides identity management for enterprises. Track:

SSO service availability
API gateway performance
Multi-factor authentication services
Directory synchronization status

Payment Processing Services

Payment failures directly impact revenue. These vendors need real-time monitoring:

Stripe

Stripe processes billions in payments. Monitor:

Payment API endpoints
Webhook delivery reliability
Regional processing availability
Connect platform status

PayPal/Braintree

Track these critical components:

Checkout API availability
IPN (Instant Payment Notification) delivery
Sandbox environment status
Merchant account services

Communication and Messaging Platforms

Communication services affect both internal operations and customer interactions:

Twilio

Twilio powers SMS, voice, and video communications. Monitor:

SMS delivery networks
Voice infrastructure availability
Programmable video services
Regional carrier connections

SendGrid

Email delivery requires monitoring:

SMTP relay availability
API endpoint responsiveness
IP reputation status
Delivery rate metrics

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

CDN failures impact application performance globally:

Cloudflare

Cloudflare serves 20% of web traffic. Monitor:

Edge server availability by region
DNS resolution services
DDoS protection status
Workers platform availability

Fastly

Fastly's real-time CDN requires tracking:

POP (Point of Presence) status
Purge API availability
Real-time analytics services
Edge compute platform

Database and Data Services

Data service outages can cripple applications:

MongoDB Atlas

Monitor these MongoDB cloud services:

Cluster availability by region
Backup service status
Atlas Search functionality
Data API endpoints

Redis Cloud

Redis Labs' managed service needs monitoring for:

Cluster health across regions
Replication lag metrics
Backup and recovery services
API gateway availability

Analytics and Monitoring Tools

Ironically, monitoring tools themselves need monitoring:

Datadog

Track Datadog's services:

Metric ingestion pipelines
Log collection services
APM trace processing
Dashboard and alerting systems

New Relic

Monitor New Relic's components:

APM agent connectivity
Browser monitoring beacons
Synthetic monitoring probes
Alert notification delivery

API Management Platforms

API gateways are critical infrastructure components:

Kong

Monitor Kong's cloud services:

Gateway proxy availability
Admin API responsiveness
Plugin execution reliability
Developer portal uptime

Apigee

Google's Apigee requires tracking:

Runtime gateway availability
Management API status
Analytics processing pipelines
Developer portal services

Collaboration and Productivity Tools

These tools affect team productivity and incident response:

Slack

Slack outages impact team communication. Monitor:

Messaging service availability
API and webhook reliability
File upload services
Voice and video call infrastructure

GitHub

Development teams depend on GitHub. Track:

Git operations availability
Actions runner status
API endpoint responsiveness
Pages hosting service

Implementing Effective Vendor Monitoring

Monitoring dozens of SaaS vendors creates several challenges:

Aggregation Complexity

Each vendor typically provides their own status page with different formats and update frequencies. Manually checking dozens of status pages isn't scalable.

Alert Fatigue

Subscribing to every vendor's status updates floods teams with notifications. Not all vendor issues impact your specific services.

Business Impact Assessment

Not all vendor outages are equal. A CDN outage might be critical for an e-commerce site but minor for an internal tool. Understanding how to prioritize vendor outages based on business impact helps teams respond appropriately.

Monitoring Solutions

Teams can build custom monitoring solutions or use specialized tools. The decision to build or buy your third-party monitoring system depends on resources and requirements.

A comprehensive monitoring approach should include:

Centralized insights from all vendors through a status page aggregator
Intelligent alerting based on service dependencies
Historical tracking for vendor reliability metrics
Integration with existing incident management workflows

Best Practices for SaaS Vendor Monitoring

Implement these practices to maximize monitoring effectiveness:

Define Critical Dependencies

Map which vendors support critical user journeys. Focus monitoring efforts on services that directly impact customers.

Set Appropriate Alert Thresholds

Not every vendor degradation requires immediate action. Configure alerts based on actual business impact.

Maintain Vendor Inventories

Keep updated lists of all SaaS dependencies, including:

Service names and purposes
Technical contacts
Contract details and SLAs
Failover or backup options

Regular Review Cycles

Quarterly reviews help identify:

New vendor dependencies
Changed criticality levels
Redundant or replaceable services
Vendor performance trends

Conclusion

The top SaaS vendors DevOps teams should monitor span multiple categories, from infrastructure providers to collaboration tools. Effective monitoring requires understanding which vendors are critical to your operations and implementing systems to track their availability.

Start by identifying your most critical vendor dependencies, then expand monitoring coverage based on business impact. Whether using custom solutions or specialized monitoring platforms, the goal remains the same: maintaining visibility into the third-party services your application depends on.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most critical SaaS vendors DevOps teams should monitor first?

Start with your cloud infrastructure provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP), authentication services, and payment processors. These form the foundation of most applications and their failure has immediate customer impact.

How many SaaS vendors does a typical DevOps team need to monitor?

Most modern applications depend on 20-50 third-party services. Enterprise applications often exceed 100 vendors. The exact number varies based on application complexity and architectural choices.

Should we monitor vendor status pages or use synthetic monitoring?

Both approaches have value. Status pages provide vendor-acknowledged issues and maintenance windows. Synthetic monitoring detects problems from your perspective, which vendors might not immediately recognize. Combining both provides comprehensive coverage.

How do we handle vendors without public status pages?

Some vendors only provide status information to paying customers or lack status pages entirely. For these, implement synthetic monitoring, track support tickets for patterns, and maintain direct technical contacts for critical issues.

What's the difference between monitoring vendor APIs vs their status pages?

API monitoring provides real-time performance data from your application's perspective. Status page monitoring tracks vendor-reported issues and planned maintenance. API monitoring catches issues faster, while status pages provide context and official communications.

How often should DevOps teams review their SaaS vendor monitoring list?

Conduct quarterly reviews at minimum. Additionally, update monitoring whenever adding new vendors, changing architectures, or experiencing vendor-related incidents. Regular reviews ensure monitoring keeps pace with evolving dependencies.