Mini School
If a small organization needs to provide quality services to users continuously, I recommend WhaTap Monitoring unconditionally. It is because typical monitoring systems are very complicated in configuration. It took less than 10 minutes from agent installation to notification setup.
In addition, I was able to save time because the service was easy to use without an aid of a guide. For startups with limited time and resources to learn how to use the monitoring for complex configuration schemes, WhaTap Monitoring is the best choice.
- Dae-gil Kim, director (co-founder of Mini School, general manager of DevOps)
Mini School that has developed online distance education platforms, is now providing B2B services, as well as B2C education services. Since 2016, we have invested a lot of resources in our remote education platform to go global. In particular, as the demand for remote online classes exploded along with the COVID-19 pandemic, we started to use WhaTap Monitoring to efficiently control large traffic flow.
The easy-to-use UI/UX design, resource equalizer, and best convenience that requires less than 5 minutes from agent installation to operation, are the biggest strengths of the server monitoring service. Dae-gil Kim, director of DevOps and co-founder of Mini School, talked about how Mini School is using WhaTap Monitoring to efficiently use time and resources, and why small organizations should choose WhaTap Monitoring.
- Interviewer: Dae-gil Kim, director (co-founder, general manager of DevOps)
Would you please introduce Mini School and its services?
Mini School is an EduTech startup founded in 2016 by engineers from the Kakao's Voice Talk development team. We are developing and operating distance education platforms and services.
The Mini School platform has a concept of “character teaching” and a teacher does not show his/her face. The classes are conducted by a favorite character like playing a game. It can increase children’s immersion into classes. Teachers conduct classes through Chrome on Windows/macOS, and students can participate in classes by using Android and iOS devices.
In addition, parents can use a function to observe real-time classes and the class activity details can be saved as videos or images to be used in the service later.
Mini School provides B2B services, and many educational companies such as Hodu Labs, Cheonjae Education, Hansol Education, and i-Scream Kids are interested in the Mini School service.
Would you please briefly introduce the team that is using WhaTap Monitoring and the IT infrastructure details of Mini School?
The WhaTap solution is being used by the development and DevOps teams to monitor infrastructure details and receive notifications. The Mini School platform is for B2B services and most people are in charge of developing and operating the platform.
The server infrastructure resources of Mini School are based on AWS best practices. Other cloud-type services such as Clover Voice (Naver Cloud) and Notification (NHN Cloud) are used for platform development and operation.
Would you please briefly introduce the director's role?
I oversee the DevOps works for the Mini School education platform and involve the overall operations as a co-founder. Prior to foundation of Mini School, I developed Voice Talk at Kakao.
Many companies want to monitor their resources, but it is not easy to adopt the monitoring service in their solutions. Nevertheless, why did you adopt the monitoring service and choose the WhaTap Lab’s solution?
As the infrastructure for handling large-volume traffic was applied, the demand for infrastructure monitoring and notification began to increase.
Since 2016, Mini School has invested a lot of resources in the distance education platform business while challenging B2C, B2B, and global markets. In particular, as the demand for online educations exploded due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mini School started to get attention. As a result, the number of partners increased and we focused on managing large-volume traffic, such as one-to-one, one-to-many, and broadcasting classes.
While looking for monitoring tools, I found WhaTap Monitoring. Coincidentally, WhaTap Labs also belonged to Kakao Ventures Family. After seeing the promotional message that the service is very easy from installation to setup, I decided to adopt the WhaTap solution.
Have you ever experienced using monitoring tools or solutions other than WhaTap Monitoring? If so, what did you use?
Before starting the business, I used some tools such as Cacti and Zabbix. For the last 3 months, I used Datadog for infrastructure monitoring, RUM (Real User Monitoring), and log monitoring.
Which WhaTap products are you using?
We are using Server Monitoring and URL Monitoring.
Which features helped you the most? Do you have any success story while using the WhaTap monitoring services?
WhaTap solution is really simple to install. The biggest advantage of the solution is that they can be used quickly, and the startups can use this advantage because time ties directly to cost. We were disappointed with Datadog's complex schemes and we had no choice but to use the WhaTap solution again. In fact, it takes less than 10 minutes to install WhaTap agents on all servers and build the notification service.
In addition, the resource equalizer is very useful in server monitoring. URL Monitoring is very effective in detecting the time when a specific service is not working.
After using Datadog for about 3 months, you returned to the WhaTap solution. Would you please tell us what made you come back and what are the advantages of the WhaTap solution, compared to Datadog?
As I mentioned before, Datadog has so many features that it takes too long to set up the features. Also the UIs are not friendly. It takes a while to learn its features. For startups like Mini School that lack time and resources, it can become a disadvantage.
On the other hand, the advantage of WhaTap services is its simplicity! Rapid! You can easily define the advantage by using this term.
Among startups, there are many small technology-based companies not to have a separate operation team. What will you advise to use WhaTap Monitoring well?
In order to continuously provide quality services to users by a small organization! If you need a schematic monitoring/notification system! You must start with WhaTab services.
The technology-based companies with DevOps teams have to keep services working and continue developing the services. In this case, the monitoring service becomes more important. If you need a systematic monitoring system while providing quality services to users, you must choose the WhaTap solution. We look forward to prosperity of Mini School and WhaTap Labs!