Are your remote conferencing tools in working order?
Nowadays, many people, even those far from IT industry, depend on remote conferencing services, either on premises, or global ones. Unless the status of those services is watched, its unexpected absence can disrupt upcoming meetings, causing all kinds of negative consequences.
Below is a brief list of several conferencing and collaboration services together with practical ways to monitor their status and availability. We only cover a small subset of popular technologies here; if you need to watch a specific service not listed below, please contact us.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a relevant example for most organizations using Microsoft’s conferencing and collaboration stack.
For Microsoft 365 environments, the primary health reference is the Microsoft 365 Service health page, which administrators can use to review active incidents and service degradations.
If deeper checks are required, Microsoft Graph and Teams-related APIs can be used to verify selected functions programmatically. For simple external monitoring, the Service health page is usually the most practical first step.
Zoom
Zoom is another popular conferencing platform. Its official status page is the simplest source for broad service-health checks, and Zoom also provides current developer APIs for meetings, reporting, and related features. By means of “Script or Program” or “Python script” monitors, one can automate quick checks for selected Zoom capabilities where account-specific validation is needed.
Cisco Webex
Cisco Webex is another well-known conferencing service, providing screen sharing and other common features. It has an official status page suitable for simple checks via “HTTP(S) monitor”, and Webex also provides current developer APIs. In addition, Webex now offers a dedicated Status API for programmatic access to service-health data, which can be useful when a plain page-content check is not enough.
GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is a Web-based conference service with typical meeting features available. Its status page is suitable for quick service checks. Official GoToMeeting APIs can also be used to access meeting history, recordings, transcripts, and management functions, which may be useful when account-specific monitoring is needed beyond a simple status-page check.
Nextcloud
Nextcloud is a self-hosted collaboration platform that includes conferencing through Nextcloud Talk.
Although there is no universal public status page for a self-hosted Nextcloud installation, current Nextcloud documentation provides both OCS/client APIs and Talk integration APIs that can be used for simple health checks, authentication checks, or service-specific validation. Since a Nextcloud installation is still fundamentally a Web application, it can also be monitored via “HTTP(S) Monitor” and “Web Transaction Monitor”.
Conclusion
If you need assistance with setting up a monitor for a service mentioned above, feel free to contact us.