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From a redesigned status page to smarter event flows and broader ChatOps support, here's everything that's shipped across this quarter.
Status Page
Redesigned status pages: cleaner, clearer, faster
Our status pages now have an updated look and a lot more clarity.
We've redesigned ilert's public-facing status pages from the ground up: cleaner visual language, better information hierarchy, and faster access to what matters during an incident. Here's what's new:
Smarter incident cards: expandable timelines show the full update history with affected services at a glance, so your users always know exactly what's impacted and what's being done.
Clearer past incident history: incidents are now grouped by date, expandable with full timelines, and each entry links to a dedicated detail view.
Instant status at a glance: a full-width status banner with a live indicator tells visitors the current system state the moment they land on the page.
The redesign is fully responsive and built for the detail-oriented audience that checks your status page during an outage: no clutter, no ambiguity.
ChatOps
Google Chat is now supported
ilert's ChatOps has always helped teams stay in sync by letting them manage incidents without leaving their chat tool. Now, we're expanding that reach: Google Chat is officially supported alongside Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Your team can now:
Receive alerts in channels with the new Google Chat alert action
Take action on alerts: Accept, Escalate, Resolve, Reroute, Merge Into
Enjoy seamless user mapping so actions are executed on behalf of the right team member
Look up who's on call instantly, no dashboard, no tab-switching, no delay
Create a war room in seconds, so response is structured from the first minute
Whether your team works in Slack, Teams, or Google Workspace, ChatOps ensures incident management happens where your team already collaborates.
Event Flows
Transform Event node
You can now modify and enrich event properties, like priority, labels, and summaries: directly in your Event Flows using the new Transform Event node. Fully manageable via Terraform for version-controlled incident orchestration.
Transform node execution logs
You can now see exactly what happened inside a transform node during event flow execution, making it faster to debug rules and understand how events are being modified in transit.
Two new log entries are available:
Transform Error: captured when a rule fails at runtime, with a machine-readable error code, a short description, and the specific rule that caused the issue.
Transformed: emitted once after all rules are processed, only when at least one net delta exists.
Both entries are accessible directly in the execution log, giving you a clear audit trail from raw event in to transformed event out.
Wait nodes now support support hours and multi-day durations
Event flows can now pause and resume based on your configured support hours, so routing logic respects when your team is actually available, not just whether a condition is met. Wait durations can also now be set in days, extending the previous limit of hours.
Terraform
Export resources to Terraform: from UI to code in one click
We're making Infrastructure-as-Code adoption easier. With the new Export to Terraform feature, you can generate valid HCL resource blocks directly from any resource detail page with a single click. Bridge the gap between UI and code instantly, and accelerate your IaC workflows without having to write configuration by hand.
Alerting & Incident Management
Teams in escalation policies
You can now add teams to escalation policies, in addition to individual users and schedules. This enables less configuration overhead and clearer accountability at scale.
Services and severity: end-to-end
Define default service and severity values in your Alert Source, push real-time overrides via the Event API, and view live impact levels directly in the Alert Detail view. Smart defaults with full override flexibility, visible where it matters most.
Add multiple responders at once
You can now select and add multiple responders or targets at once directly from the Alert detail view, no more adding them one by one.
Alert reports now support label filters
You can now filter alert reports by label, making it easier to scope reports to a specific service, team, or environment.
Access & Roles
Introducing the Viewer role
Meet the new Viewer role, designed for internal users who need full operational visibility, without the risk of making changes. Viewers get account-wide, read-only access to all incidents, alerts, services, configurations (including on-call schedules, escalation policies, and alert sources), and reports.
It's ideal for engineering managers, executives, and customer support leads who need transparency and insight, while keeping operational control firmly in the right hands.
Billing
Admins can now purchase seats directly
When adding a new user would require an extra seat, ilert flags it upfront and asks for confirmation before proceeding. A dedicated setting in the account settings page (accessible by account owners) allows you to control whether admins can purchase additional seats. Additional seats are always prorated. Billing timing depends on your plan:
Invoice customers: charged on your next invoice
Self-service monthly plans: charged on your next invoice
Self-service annual plans: charged immediately
Invoice payment for self-service annual plans
Starting with German customers, we're gradually expanding invoice support to additional countries, including the EU and US. Customers on an annual subscription of €2,000 or more can pay by invoice: fully automated, no manual steps required.
Note: invoice revisions are not supported.
Call Routing
Voicemail transcriptions now support multiple languages
Call flow voicemail transcriptions are no longer limited to a single language. ilert now detects and transcribes voicemails in the language they were left in.
Mobile
Redesigned alert detail view
We've streamlined the mobile alert detail view to give you more space for what's important and make incident handling faster on the go. The alert summary, chips bar, and tabs are now organized for a cleaner layout, with the chips bar showing up to two lines by default and a label icon for better clarity. The actions bar stays fixed at the bottom, keeping key actions always within reach. Less scrolling, clearer context, quicker decisions.
Bulk acknowledge and resolve
You can now select multiple alerts and acknowledge or resolve them in one tap, directly from the alert list view on mobile.
Integrations
Custom HTTP headers for webhook alert actions
You can now define custom headers on outbound webhook integrations, useful for passing authentication tokens, API keys, or any metadata your receiving endpoint expects.
New integrations
WhaTap: an AI-native observability platform. As a SaaS-based unified IT monitoring service provider, it offers comprehensive monitoring across a wide range of IT environments.
Phare Uptime: is a reliable, privacy-focused monitoring service that keeps a close eye on your websites, APIs, and SSL certificates.
SysAid: an AI-native ITSM platform built to automate the heavy lifting of modern IT. Uses built-in AI to prioritize tasks, summarize ticket histories, and provide instant resolutions to end users and IT admins.
Level: a modern remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform built for IT teams and MSPs who prefer to work smarter and stay ahead of issues.
When it comes to IT services and operations we find ourselves straddling ITIL and DevOps—two very different approaches with different philosophies. ITIL is all about structured processes and stability, DevOps is all about speed, collaboration and automation. But how do you choose the right one for your organisation?
At ilert we specialise in bridging the gap between structured incident management and agile response strategies. Whether your team follows ITIL best practices, is a DevOps culture or is a mix of both ilert ensures your incident response processes are efficient, automated and reliable. In this article we’ll break down the differences between ITIL and DevOps so you can decide which one fits your organisation’s goals.
What is ITIL?
ITIL is a framework for IT service management that provides best practices for aligning IT services with the needs of the business. It was developed by the British government in the 1980s and has since been adopted by organizations around the world.
ITIL provides a structured approach to service management with precisely defined processes and procedures. It helps organizations improve their service quality, optimize their resources, and manage risks. ITIL can be used to support a wide range of IT services, including those provided by cloud providers.
What is ITIL used for?
ITIL is a process-oriented approach which focuses on identifying and managing the individual steps required to deliver high-quality IT services, ranging from the development and deployment of new services to monitoring and optimizing service quality.
ITIL can also be useful for companies transitioning to the cloud, as it provides guidance on how to align IT services with the relevant business requirements.
In addition, ITIL can be used to improve communication between the IT department and other areas of the business in order to create a collaborative environment within an organization. ITIL can also support organizations with managing risks and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
The main benefit of ITIL is that it helps to standardize your IT operations, which can make managing complex environments easier and improve the efficiency of your IT department. ITIL can also help you to document and track changes to your IT infrastructure, so that you can identify and address issues more quickly. A downside of ITIL is that it can be inflexible and slow to adapt to changes.
Is ITIL still relevant?
Many companies struggle with the implementation of ITIL because the framework is complex and difficult to follow. As a result, some experts say that ITIL is no longer relevant in today's fast-paced digital world. However, modern ITSM practices increasingly integrate ITIL with Agile and DevOps methodologies, allowing organizations to combine structured service management with faster and more collaborative software delivery.
One reason why ITIL is seen this way is that the framework provides a comprehensive approach to ITSM. It is also not prescriptive, meaning that organizations are flexible in how they implement it. This can make it difficult for companies to understand where to start and how best to use the framework to meet their specific requirements.
The latest version, ITIL 4, was released in 2019 and introduced a more flexible and modernized approach to service management. Rather than following the rigid lifecycle stages of its predecessor, ITIL 4 is built around the Service Value System (SVS) and a Service Value Chain; a shift designed to make the framework more adaptable to Agile and DevOps ways of working. This makes it better suited to organizations looking to retain structured service management practices without sacrificing speed or collaboration.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is a methodology that unites development and operations teams around shared goals, processes, and responsibilities.. One of the main benefits of DevOps is that it can help you accelerate the deployment of new features and updates. This is because DevOps is based on the principle of "Automation first" - this means that manual processes are automated as much as possible, such as the provision of servers and the implementation of code changes. Modern DevOps practices also emphasize continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), infrastructure automation, and strong observability to support reliable and frequent software releases. Furthermore, DevOps adds the "human element" and shows how teams can work together to achieve more than the sum of their individual efforts alone.
Because DevOps fosters a culture of collaboration between development and operations teams, issues can be identified and resolved more quickly. DevOps is particularly suited to breaking down information silos. One of the drawbacks of DevOps, however, is that it can be difficult to implement, particularly in large companies.
ITIL vs. DevOps
One of the most important differences between ITIL and DevOps is the emphasis on speed. ITIL prioritizes managing and improving existing services, whereas DevOps is more geared towards delivering new features and updates as quickly as possible. Another difference is the scope of each approach. ITIL is a framework for the management of all aspects of IT services, while DevOps primarily deals with the software development lifecycle.
So which approach is right for your organization? If you want to improve the efficacy of your existing IT processes, then ITIL is the right choice. If you want to accelerate the delivery of new features and updates, then DevOps is the right approach. But if you want to get the best of both approaches, you can use them together. Many think of ITIL and DevOps as an either-or decision, but in reality, they are complementary approaches. In practice, many organizations adopt a hybrid model in which ITIL provides governance and service management structure, while DevOps practices enable faster development, automation, and continuous delivery.
How can you combine ITIL and DevOps successfully?
ITIL and DevOps go together excellently. If you want to successfully combine ITIL and DevOps, you should first consider how to best integrate the two concepts. Think of your problem as a basis for this. It is important to establish a common framework for the collaboration of teams. In addition, you should integrate DevOps principles into your ITIL processes and vice versa. This way you can ensure that both concepts are working optimally.
Advantages of successful integration include:
Improved IT service quality
Faster deployment of new features and updates
Reduced risks
Greater flexibility when adapting to changing business requirements
Faster response to change requests
Better software quality
Reduced complexity in your IT environment
Less effort needed for change management.
Conclusion
ITIL is still relevant today because it provides a framework for ITSM. The framework sets out best practices for delivering high-quality IT services and aligning IT services with business goals. It also helps organizations to improve their IT service processes. In addition, ITIL provides guidance on how an IT service organization can be effectively managed and operated.
DevOps is not a replacement for the ITIL framework, but a complement. By combining DevOps with the ITIL framework, businesses can respond to changes faster and improve the quality of their software. By reducing the complexity in your IT environment and the effort for change management, DevOps teams can work more efficiently. In short, the combination of both can improve the quality of ITSM.
Imagine it’s 2 AM and a critical system flatlines without warning. A bleary-eyed on-call engineer scrambles to restore service, shielding customers from a major outage that could torpedo your next Service Level Objective (SLO) review. Yet when daylight returns, debates over fair on-call compensation start all over again: What’s “just” pay for sleepless nights, unpredictable pings, and rapid-fire incident responses?
What counts as on-call?
On-call is a special working hour arrangement under employment law. It comes into effect when the employee is obliged to be contactable at least by phone, so they can start work in an emergency. On-call duty is generally counted as time specifically meant for work purposes.
In practice, this means that employees are normally not allowed to work while on call. However, there may be exceptions. For example, on-call employees may also work from home if they can be reached through their work device.
What's the difference between on-call and stand-by service?
There’s a time-and-location gap between the two models:
On-call – employees stay reachable (phone, pager, or on-call management app) and can log in from anywhere when an alert fires.
Stand-by – staff must be physically present on site and ready to act immediately. German labour law labels this Bereitschaftsdienst as working time and treats it accordingly.
In IT operations, remote on-call service is usually preferred because most incidents (code rollbacks, config tweaks) can be resolved over VPN. Stand-by still matters for latency-critical environments, for example, trading platforms or industrial control systems, where a technician must monitor hardware and intervene within seconds to meet strict service-level agreements.
Are on-call hours the same as work hours?
Whether on-call duty counts as working hours isn’t as clear-cut as it looks. Under most labour-law frameworks – including Occupational Safety and Health guidance and the U.S. FLSA Fact Sheet #22 – passive on-call time is treated as rest time as long as no alert comes in. The moment you’re paged and start troubleshooting, those minutes flip to active working time. In borderline cases, courts (e.g., Germany’s BAG, Oct 2023 ruling 6 AZR 210/22) (source available in German) decide which periods qualify, so definitions often vary by jurisdiction and company policy.
There’s also no universal rule on pay. Many employers treat on-call duty as billable work and compensate it accordingly; others classify passive standby as unpaid availability. If your firm uses the latter model, remember you won’t be reimbursed for simply being reachable.
Bottom line: on-call time isn’t always the same as working time – it hinges on the organisation’s compensation policy. Some U.S. big-tech companies (Airbnb, Apple, Netflix) don’t pay for passive standby, while many European tech firms do.
On-call duty times
On-call scheduling is usually confined to specific nights or weekends agreed in advance and written into the employment contract. Because fewer staff are on site during those hours, reliable night- and weekend coverage is essential.
In Germany, the ICT trade group Bitkom recommends capping on-call assignments at 56 days per calendar year and guaranteeing at least 8 consecutive hours of rest per shift – Bitkom’s guideline on Rufbereitschaft im IT-Betrieb. On-call duty is generally classified as non-working time, so the usual 11-hour rest break required by §5 (1) of the Arbeitszeitgesetz does not apply until the engineer has actively worked on an incident.
Need an easy way to keep those limits visible? ilert’s on-call scheduling shows every planned rotation and actual shifts at a glance, so teams stay compliant without spreadsheets.
How is payment settled for on-call service in IT companies?
In IT companies, on-call hours are usually considered working time and are paid as such. As mentioned above, be sure to clarify this with your employer in advance to check what is stated in your contract.
For large corporations like Airbnb or Apple, which do not pay for on-call time, the argument is that their employees are already among the top earners. This means that their employees still earn much more than they would at most companies that pay on-call time in addition to their salary.
In Germany, there is no specific law regarding how on-call hours should be paid. This is, therefore, left up to the employer’s discretion. Most commonly, however, on-call duty is generally paid working time, i.e., the employee receives payment for the time he or she is on-call. This can be structured in different ways.
In practice, on-call time is often compensated either on top of the standard hourly wage or with time off. In many companies, on-call time is also counted as working time and is paid for accordingly. However, this is only possible if the employee is working rather than being only available by phone. As already mentioned, this would be the case while working from home.
In most tech organisations, hours spent on-call count as paid working time, yet the formula changes from company to company. Before you join a rota, double-check your contract or the internal on-call compensation policy.
In practice, you’ll see two common models:
Hourly uplift
A percentage on top of the standard rate for every scheduled standby hour.
Time-off swap
Eight hours on-call earn four hours of paid leave.
Remember, only the minutes you actively work are universally classed as working time; simply being reachable may stay unpaid unless your company’s policy says otherwise.
How are on-call services paid in IT companies?
Pay still varies by company size, sector, and risk profile. The federal collective agreement for public employees (TVöD) specifies the following allowances in § 8 Abs. 3:
Stand-by shifts of 12 hours or longer
Weekdays (Mon–Fri): paid at 2 X the hourly rate for the entire day.
Weekends and public holidays: paid at 4 X the hourly rate for the entire day.
Shorter stand-by windows (under 12 h)
Earn an additional 12.5 % of your hourly rate for each hour on call.
For work in a large corporation or a successful start-up, you can expect to earn about €1,000 per week. At Zalando, the on-call compensation is roughly €1,050; at the start-up HelloFresh, €1,000; and at Amazon Germany, about €800. Several companies in the financial sector offer comparable rates, although exact amounts vary. Here are the stats provided by Pragmatic Engineer blog:
SumUp (Germany): €1,050 per week
N26 (Germany): €880 per week
Klarna (Europe): €500 per week
Mastercard (UK): £470 per week
PayPal (Germany): $350 per week
Wise (UK): £300 per week
Recent engineer forums and community posts add further reference points:
Google – Tier-1 SRE rota (five-minute response): paid for 40 minutes of every on-call hour outside office hours (66% of the base hourly rate). Tier-2 (30-minute response): 20 minutes per hour (33 %).
AWS (EU Tier-0 services) – 25% of base pay for each out-of-hours on-call hour, plus a half-day of paid time off for every Saturday or night-time page.
Beyond payment: safeguarding on-call well-being
Pay isn’t the only lever that matters. On-call duty disrupts normal sleep patterns and life outside work, so protecting responders’ well-being is critical. Your team will cope far better if you follow these five practices:
Set crystal-clear expectations for response windows and escalation paths.
Rotate shifts fairly with primary + secondary roles,use an automated on-call schedule so the rota is transparent.
Watch the workload: track pages per engineer and cap consecutive overnights with on-call reports.
Leverage tooling- alert deduplication and smart escalations in ilert’s on-call management cut noise and shorten time-to-sleep.
Provide regular training and support- run quarterly fire-drills or gamedays so responders stay confident under fire.
Quick summary
On-call duty in IT means being reachable outside normal hours to respond to incidents, usually remotely. It differs from standby service, which requires physical presence and is always counted as working time. Legally, on-call time isn’t always paid, only active incident response typically counts as working time. Compensation varies: some companies offer hourly uplifts or time-off swaps, while others, like Apple or Airbnb, don’t pay for passive standby. In Germany, Bitkom recommends no more than 56 on-call days per year with 8-hour rest shifts. Weekly stipends range from €800 to €1,050 at firms like Zalando, HelloFresh, and SumUp. To protect engineers, best practices include fair rotations, clear escalation paths, tooling to reduce alert noise, and regular training
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