When buying a car for the first time in a life, I often list a used car as an option. However, unlike buying a new car, it is said that buying a used car requires at least six steps to fully become your own car. Also, unlike buying a new car, used cars have severe information asymmetry for consumers due to false sales and price gaps caused by dealers, and the complicated process of changing names and even making loans has increased, so consumers are bound to feel that the barriers to entry are high.

In order to reduce this complicated process, Commerce, a service that provides used cars as a platform to consumers like an open market, was recently launched. It is said that with a 3-step authentication system, all processes from vehicle registration to purchase, loan, name change, and transfer registration can be handled online.

In the early stages of service launch, in order to quickly resolve errors and operate a stable service, it is necessary to carry out various tasks, from basic monitoring to development of new services. The Commerce development team said they were able to save up to 80% of development time with Watap monitoring. I met the Commerce development team in person and heard firsthand how they use Watap monitoring

Introduction: Introduction to customers and the state of infrastructure

Please introduce the handle company and tell us what you are responsible for.

Lee Seung-won (hereafter Seung-won): Our steering wheel is a mobile car distribution company and recently launched the used car e-commerce platform Commerce in November of last year. Compared to the process of buying a new car, dealers have a large influence on used cars, and the information imbalance among consumers is relatively large. Commerce is a service that minimizes risk factors that occur during used car transactions, such as opaque prices and false sales, and reduces procedures as if purchasing necessary items online

Lee Joon-seop (hereafter Joon-seop): I'm in charge of search engine development in the development team. Previously, I was working on deployment, source management, and CI/CD work, but as the number of services under development or developed has increased, I am also responsible for monitoring.

How is Handle's IT infrastructure structured?

Joon-seop: The current infrastructure is using Google Cloud (GCP) and AWS Cloud, and NHN Cloud is also being used for loan corporate brokerage services to compare loan products. In the case of the development environment, the backend side uses Java, Kotlin, and Node.js, the frontend side is developed with React and React Native, and the development environment is developed using Docker in an MSA style, and services are performed with Kubernetes.

Challenge: From introduction to WhaTap to user reviews

I'm curious about the background of choosing Watab and how I learned it.

Seungwon: Initially, only some services running on AWS were monitored with Watap. Then there is a need to expand the monitoring range to the main service, so we are currently using GCP and AWS together. Since the launch of the commerce service, monitoring coverage has been expanded, and additional monitoring of WhaTap has been added.

preferential: Previously, ELK was used for log monitoring, and open source monitoring was used in IDC environments. However, it didn't seem to be suitable for the current cloud environment, so I found Watab while searching.

On average, how many hours per day do you use monitoring?

Joon-seop: As soon as you go to work, the monitoring screen is displayed. I've also set up the ability to receive Wtab notifications in Slack. I know that another operation team leader looks at the Watap monitoring screen for about 30 minutes to 1 hour in the morning.

What do you think is the advantage of WTAP compared to the monitoring you used before?

preferential: I have used an installation-type monitoring solution for affiliate operations. In order to fully use installed monitoring, the company had to customize everything from 1 to 10. Also, in order to launch one server into the monitoring solution, it was cumbersome and time-consuming because it was necessary to schedule a schedule with an engineer and do separate work.

On the other hand, Watap was easy to follow because the installation guide videos and documentation were well provided, and it was easy and convenient to set up, saving time.

Please introduce the most viewed screens or features of the Watap service.

Joon-seop: I see a lot of application dashboards, and I often check for errors in heatmaps. Other than that, I'm using the integrated report function, and since I can easily generate a report by selecting multiple projects, I think I was able to reduce the time required to write a report by viewing the number of errors on a date and a report on the rate of increase or decrease.

preferential: I also check heatmaps frequently. I think a strong advantage of heatmaps is that you can check where the current transaction request came from, what kind of request was made, how the requested transaction queried the DB, and even the elapsed time of the transaction.

Management: Problem-solving experience and why monitoring is recommended for early-stage startups ‍

Please tell us about your experience in solving problems while using Watab.

Seungwon: Recently, a foreign customer verified his identity to purchase a vehicle, but the parameter value could not be set. At the end of the day, I was monitoring, and the identity verification problem was solved in 10 minutes by telling the person in charge that an error occurred in the heatmap transaction. The same issue did not occur thereafter.

Other than that, since our service is in the early stages, there are times when the app suddenly crashes, and each time, we were able to quickly detect and solve the problem with Watap monitoring.

preferential: When Watap was not used, it was difficult to detect where the error occurred unless the user was talking. After using Watap, I was able to clearly check which request the error occurred It was a really good idea to introduce a monitoring serviceI think so.

Why should startups use monitoring?

preferential: The smaller the number of people, the easier it is to detect the cause of application errors through monitoring, so I think monitoring must be introduced. Finding and resolving errors through monitoring can save time and money rather than spending more time finding the cause of errors with fewer people. In particular, if the database is locked, the query must be queried and confirmed, but the same problem does not occur if you solve it directly with Locked In (Locked In). Because of this, I think monitoring is an essential system.

Seungwon: Development time was greatly reduced by using monitoring. Personally, I think development time has been drastically reduced by 70-80% according to our company's standards.

The startup package you are currently using is 100,000 won per month, and you can use the Watap service without restrictions. Please tell me how you recommend the Watap Startup Package to other startups that read reviews of Commerce

Seungwon: I knew that Watap monitoring was good in terms of functionality, but considering the cost, I thought it was a bit burdensome in the early stages of the service because of the large budget from the beginning. However, I discovered that there was a startup package promotion, and I was able to make a decision right away with Priority. If it wasn't for the startup package, it would have required a lot of internal discussions. If a new service requires stable operation, monitoring is essential. We hope that startup stakeholders who read our reviews will adopt monitoring as soon as possible through the Watap Startup Package.