HealthScan™
The independent assessment that produces the backlog Catalyst will deliver. If you're not sure what needs fixing, start with HealthScan, it maps the full picture.
HealthScan service detail →Optimise, Catalyst
Datadog improvement engineering-
delivered, not recommended.
The managed services industry has a recurring failure mode: a consultant arrives, reviews the environment, produces a report with twelve recommendations, and leaves. Six months later the team is back to square one, having spent budget on findings they didn't have time to act on. Catalyst is the opposite of that.
Catalyst is backlog-led improvement engineering. The scope is agreed before work starts. Critical Cloud practitioners complete it. The output is a changed Datadog environment, not a report about what should change.
Delivery
Practitioners complete the work
Agreed
Backlog locked before work starts
Optimise
Phase two of the journey
No scope creep
Written authorisation required for any addition
Quick facts
PhaseOptimise
ProcessReview → Prioritise → Implement → Govern
AccessAdmin Datadog + relevant cloud credentials
ScopeAgreed and locked before work starts, no additions without written authorisation
Best whenYou know what's wrong and need it delivered, not diagnosed again
Related services
- Need assessment first: HealthScan™
- Ongoing management after: Managed Datadog
The problem
Reports don't improve Datadog environments. Delivery does.
There's a specific pattern that repeats across organisations that have tried to improve their Datadog setup: an assessment is done, a list of improvements is produced, and then nothing happens. The backlog sits in a doc. The team doesn't have the bandwidth. Six months later, another assessment is commissioned.
The problem isn't understanding what needs to change. It's that the change requires focused engineering time and focused engineering time is the scarcest resource in every engineering organisation. Datadog improvements always lose to product roadmap work.
Catalyst removes the bottleneck. Critical Cloud practitioners take the agreed backlog and complete it, writing the configurations, implementing the changes, testing the outcomes. Your team's job is to agree the scope and accept the handover. The delivery happens without pulling engineers off the roadmap.
The model is deliberately constrained. Scope is agreed before work starts. Nothing is added to the engagement without written authorisation. The backlog is the contract, what's in it gets done, what's not in it doesn't get added unilaterally.
This is what makes Catalyst fundamentally different from an open-ended consulting engagement: it has a defined end state, a specific set of deliverables, and a handover that transfers knowledge back to your team.
How it works
Review, Prioritise, Implement, Govern
Catalyst runs in four stages. The first two establish the agreed scope. The latter two deliver it.
Stage 01
Review
Current state assessment: what exists, what's broken, what's missing. This may draw on an existing HealthScan or be done as part of Catalyst kick-off.
Stage 02
Prioritise
Backlog defined and agreed with your team. Impact and effort ratings. Priority order. Definition of done for each item. Nothing starts until this is signed off.
Stage 03
Implement
Critical Cloud practitioners execute the agreed backlog. Configuration changes, implementations, tests. You maintain visibility and approval checkpoints throughout.
Stage 04
Govern
Handover documentation, what was done, how decisions were made, what standards were applied, so your team can maintain what was built without Critical Cloud.
What's covered
Every dimension of Datadog improvement
Catalyst can address any element of a Datadog deployment. The most common areas are below, but the backlog is defined by your environment's specific needs, not a fixed template.
Tagging and naming standards
Implementing consistent tag taxonomy across environments, services, and teams. The foundation that makes filtering, cost attribution, and ownership mapping work.
Monitor redesign and alert tuning
Replacing default and drifted monitors with purpose-built alerting, thresholds calibrated to real environment behaviour, ownership routing corrected, noise eliminated.
Dashboard rationalisation
Removing dashboards nobody uses. Rebuilding the operational views that matter. Establishing ownership so dashboards stay current as the architecture changes.
SLOs and service health
Service Level Objectives designed around actual customer-facing reliability targets, implemented correctly, with error budget tracking that teams use in practice.
Log and telemetry governance
Log pipeline review and correction. Retention and sampling aligned to operational needs and cost targets. Telemetry quality improvements across the estate.
Security signal operations
Turning security telemetry into operational workflows, detection tuning, triage process, escalation routing, and integration with incident management.
Incident and event workflows
Datadog incident management configuration, workflow automation, and event correlation, structured incident response rather than ad hoc alert triage.
Product adoption
Enabling Datadog features the team pays for but hasn't configured, APM, RUM, Security, AI Observability, turning unused licences into operational capability.
FAQ
Questions about how Catalyst works.
How is Catalyst different from a standard consulting engagement?
In a consulting engagement, consultants advise and the client implements. In Catalyst, Critical Cloud practitioners complete the approved work. The deliverable is a changed Datadog environment, not a report about what should change. Scope is agreed and locked before work starts.
What if more work is identified during the engagement?
Additional scope is never added without your explicit written authorisation. If new work is discovered, we flag it and you decide whether to authorise it. The approved backlog is never exceeded unilaterally.
Does Catalyst require a HealthScan first?
Not necessarily. Some teams have their own assessment of what needs fixing, or a specific problem to solve. HealthScan is a useful precursor when the scope of improvement work isn't clear, but it's not a prerequisite.
How is the backlog defined?
Collaboratively, before work starts. Critical Cloud and your team agree what's in scope, the priority order, and the definition of done for each item. Nothing proceeds until the backlog is signed off. This protects both parties from scope creep and unclear expectations.
Related services
Before and after Catalyst.
Managed Datadog
After Catalyst delivers a clean Datadog environment, Managed Datadog keeps it that way, recurring monthly platform management as the system grows and changes.
Managed Datadog service detail →UK Datadog partner
Catalyst is delivered by the world's first Powered by Datadog accredited MSP, practitioners who run Datadog in production every day and implement changes to that standard.
Partner credentials →Ready to stop diagnosing and start fixing?
Talk to Critical Cloud about Catalyst. Bring your backlog or tell us the problems, we'll scope an engagement that delivers the improvements your environment needs.