A comprehensive guide to using Emergix during critical incidents. Learn how to access real-time operational views and maintain situational awareness.
Emergix is N2 Computing's solution for incident and emergency operations. It provides clear, real-time operational views when time and accuracy matter most. During critical incidents, Emergix helps response teams understand what's happening without adding noise, confusion, or operational risk.
All Emergix operations are read-only by design. This means you can access critical information during incidents without any risk of modifying systems or disrupting recovery efforts. When every second counts, Emergix ensures you have the information you need to make informed decisions.
During incidents, information must move faster than confusion. Emergix structures existing operational data into clear, controlled views that help teams:
• Understand the current state of affected systems
• Track incident progression and impact
• Access historical context without overwhelming detail
• Maintain situational awareness across teams
Unlike traditional incident response tools that may require write access or system modifications, Emergix operates entirely in read-only mode. This ensures that your incident response activities don't inadvertently worsen the situation.
Emergix provides several types of real-time operational views, each optimized for different aspects of incident response:
Get real-time visibility into system health and status:
System status views help you quickly identify which systems are affected, their current health metrics, and any dependencies that might be impacted. This information is updated in real-time as the incident evolves.
Track incident progression with chronological event views:
Timeline views help you understand how the incident developed, what actions have been taken, and how the situation has evolved over time. This context is crucial for making informed decisions about next steps.
Understand the scope and impact of the incident:
Impact assessment views help you understand who and what is affected by the incident. This information is essential for prioritizing response efforts and communicating with stakeholders.
During incidents, maintaining clear situational awareness is critical. Emergix helps you stay oriented by:
Operational views update automatically as new information becomes available. You don't need to manually refresh or poll for updates—Emergix keeps you current.
Information is presented in a consistent, structured format. This makes it easy to quickly find what you need without parsing through raw logs or unstructured data.
Each view includes relevant context—timestamps, related events, system dependencies. This context helps you understand not just what's happening, but why it matters.
All authorized team members can access the same operational views simultaneously. This ensures everyone has the same understanding of the situation.
Follow this workflow when using Emergix during incident response:
When an incident is detected, start by accessing system status views to understand the current state:
• Identify which systems are affected
• Check system health metrics and recent events
• Review dependencies to understand potential cascading effects
• Assess initial impact scope
Use incident timeline views to understand how the incident developed:
• Review chronological events leading up to the incident
• Identify the root cause or trigger
• Track response actions that have been taken
• Understand how the situation has evolved
Use impact assessment views to understand the full scope:
• Identify all affected services and systems
• Assess user and customer impact
• Evaluate business metrics and operational impact
• Prioritize response efforts based on impact
Continue monitoring operational views as the incident progresses:
• Watch for changes in system status
• Track the effectiveness of response actions
• Monitor for new issues or complications
• Update stakeholders with current status
When using Emergix during incidents, follow these best practices:
Always begin by checking system status views. This gives you the foundation for understanding what's happening before diving into detailed analysis.
Timeline views help you understand not just what's happening now, but how the incident developed. This context is crucial for effective response.
Ensure all team members have access to the same operational views. Shared visibility prevents confusion and ensures coordinated response.
Remember that all Emergix operations are read-only. You can access information freely without worrying about accidentally making things worse.
Here are common incident scenarios and how to use Emergix effectively:
Use system status views to identify which services are down, check dependencies to understand cascading effects, and use timeline views to understand what triggered the outage. Impact assessment views help you communicate user impact to stakeholders.
System status views show current performance metrics and help identify which systems are affected. Timeline views help you understand when degradation started and what events preceded it. Use this information to identify root causes.
Timeline views are critical for understanding the sequence of security events. System status views help identify which systems may be compromised. Impact assessment views help understand the scope of potential data exposure.
Emergix integrates with common incident response workflows:
• Incident Management Systems: Emergix can provide operational context to incident tickets, helping responders understand the technical situation
• Communication Tools: Integrate with Slack or other tools to share operational views with response teams
• Status Pages: Use Emergix data to populate public status pages with accurate, real-time information
• Runbooks: Operational views from Emergix can inform and validate runbook execution
After an incident is resolved, Emergix operational views can be used for post-incident review:
• Review timeline views to understand the complete incident lifecycle
• Analyze system status changes to identify patterns or warning signs
• Use impact assessment data to quantify the incident's effects
• Extract lessons learned to improve future incident response
All Emergix access during incidents is logged and auditable, providing a complete record for post-incident analysis and compliance requirements.
To get started with Emergix for incident response:
• Review the Emergency Operations guide for additional operational scenarios
• Set up Emergix access for your incident response team
• Practice using operational views during non-critical situations
• Integrate Emergix with your existing incident management workflows