ApproveThis manages your Updown.io approvals.

Why This Integration Isn’t Just Another Zap

Let’s cut to the chase: uptime monitoring and approval workflows are like night shift workers who never talk. Updown.io spots problems, ApproveThis fixes them – but without integration, they’re just two separate tools draining your subscription budget. Connect them via Zapier, and suddenly you’ve got a system where critical alerts automatically trigger decision-making processes. No more screenshotting error messages in Slack threads. No more “Did anyone approve the SSL renewal?” emails lost in someone’s promotions tab.

Real Problems, Actual Solutions

Here’s what happens when you make your monitoring tool and approval system actually work together:

1. Downtime Doesn’t Mean Waiting on Hold

When Updown.io detects your e-commerce site is down, ApproveThis doesn’t just notify your DevOps lead – it starts an approval chain. The first-line engineer can approve a server restart immediately. If costs exceed $500/hour (thanks to those Calculated Fields), it escalates to the CTO automatically. We’ve seen SaaS companies cut response time by 83% using this combo. No more hallway ambushes for sign-offs.

2. SSL Expirations That Don’t End in HR Training Videos

Financial services companies using this integration get SSL expiration alerts from Updown.io and a pre-built approval request for certificate renewal in ApproveThis. Approval thresholds auto-approve renewals under $5k, while anything higher gets CFO eyes. Vacation delegation means if your security lead is climbing Machu Picchu, their backup gets the request. No more expired certs causing “that” all-hands meeting.

3. Audits That Don’t Require Xanax

When you approve an SSL renewal in ApproveThis, the integration can log it back in Updown.io. Now your compliance team has a paper trail showing exactly who approved what, when, and why. Healthcare companies love this – it turns a 3-week audit process into a 10-minute search. Bonus: approvers from external security firms don’t need Updown.io licenses to greenlight renewals.

How To Set This Up Without Calling IT

Zapier’s the glue here. You’ll create a Zap that:

1. Triggers when Updown.io detects an issue (downtime/SSL expiration)
2. Feeds alert details into ApproveThis via “Create Request” action
3. Routes to pre-configured approvers based on your rules

Example: A media company sets thresholds where under 5 minutes of downtime auto-approves a CDN cache purge, but anything longer requires VP sign-off. Their DevOps team built this in 18 minutes using pre-made templates.

Who Actually Benefits (Spoiler: More Than Just Engineers)

IT Teams: Stop being the messenger between monitoring tools and executives. ApprovalGroups mean once you set the escalation rules, it’s out of your hands.

Finance: See every approval tied to actual downtime costs via Calculated Fields. That $20K outage? Now you know exactly which service contract to renegotiate.

External Auditors: Get read-only access to approval chains without needing logins for six different systems. Real-time tracking shows them exactly when AWS issues were approved versus actual infrastructure failures.

What You’re Missing Without This Integration

Manual approval processes for uptime issues are like using a smoke signal to report a fire. While you’re waiting for someone to check their email, your:

• Customer support gets flooded with tickets
• Ad spend burns through your budget
• CEO starts asking about “that blockchain hosting idea”

ApproveThis adds structure to chaos. Multi-step approvals with conditional logic mean junior staff handle routine alerts, leadership only sees major incidents. Email-based approvals work for contractors who won’t learn another tool. And everything’s documented before the post-mortem meeting starts.

Common Objections (And Why They’re Dumb)

“We already get Updown.io alerts in Slack.” Cool. How many “ACK” reactions does it take to approve a $10K server upgrade? Exactly.
“Our approvals are too complex for automation.” Approval thresholds handle dollar amounts. Conditional routing deals with departments. Vacation coverage prevents bottlenecks. What’s your excuse again?
“We’ll set this up later.” Said every team before their big holiday sale crashed.

Getting Started Before Your Next Outage

1. Grab your Updown.io API key (it’s under settings – takes 30 seconds).
2. Connect Updown.io and ApproveThis via Zapier – use the “New Down Alert” trigger.
3. Build approval rules in ApproveThis: set thresholds, approvers, and escalation paths.
4. Test with a staged outage (pro tip: do this before Friday deployments).

Companies between 50-5k employees use this integration to turn monitoring alerts into actionable workflows. Because waiting for someone to check their inbox isn’t a business continuity plan.

Bottom Line

Updown.io tells you when things break. ApproveThis gets them fixed faster than your team can say “But it worked in dev.” The integration’s free to try, takes under an hour to set up, and might finally get your CTO off your back about “operational efficiency.”

Do this now: Register for ApproveThis or schedule a 15-minute demo. Your future self (the one not dealing with outage fallout) says thanks.