PagerDuty integrates with monitoring and chat tools to streamline incident response

PagerDuty as a nerve center for incident response means more than just getting alerts out the door. It’s about turning noisy signals into clean, actionable steps that keep services up and teams aligned. A big piece of that puzzle is integrations—connections that bring data, people, and workflows into one place. When you map out the right set of integrations, you’re not simply pinging tools; you’re weaving a smarter, swifter response process. So, what types of integrations does PagerDuty support, and why do they matter in real life?

Two pillars that keep incidents from spiraling

Think of PagerDuty as the cockpit of your incident response. Two pillars stand out as especially powerful: monitoring integrations and chat integrations. Monitoring tools feed PagerDuty with real-time signals about system health and performance. Chat tools keep the whole team in the loop, letting people discuss, decide, and act without bouncing between apps. Together, they collapse the distance between alert and action.

Monitoring integrations: data that instructs action

Let’s start with monitoring. These integrations connect PagerDuty to the dashboards, metrics, and logs your team already relies on. The idea is simple: when a threshold is breached or an anomaly is detected, PagerDuty can automatically create an incident, surface the relevant context, and kick off the right on-call response.

Here are some common players you’ll likely encounter:

• Datadog: Brings in dashboards, monitors, and traces. You can trigger incidents from metric alerts, APM signals, or log anomalies.

• New Relic: Uses synthetic and real-time performance data to spark incidents when applications slow down or error rates spike.

• Dynatrace and AppDynamics: Provide full-stack visibility. They’re great for correlating user experience with backend health.

• Prometheus and Grafana: Open-source options that are popular in cloud-native environments. PagerDuty can react to custom Prometheus alerts and bring that context into the incident.

• Splunk: Makes sense when you’re watching logs closely—anomalies in log data can become incident triggers.

• Cloud-native observability: AWS CloudWatch, Google Cloud Operations (formerly Stackdriver), Azure Monitor—these services offer cloud-scale metrics and events that PagerDuty can route into your on-call workflows.

So how does it actually work in practice? You set up monitors and alerts in your tool of choice, and then connect that tool to PagerDuty. When the tool detects something noteworthy—like a CPU spike, a latency increase, or a recurring error—PagerDuty receives the signal, pulls in relevant context (which service is affected, what the latest runbook says, who’s on call), and creates a focused incident. The incident then follows your routing rules: who should be alerted, how to escalate if no one responds, and what the runbook should show responders first. The result is faster triage, fewer false alarms, and clearer ownership from the moment an problem pops up.

A quick mental model: monitoring integrations are your situation-report generators. They translate raw data into a story that helps your team decide what to do next.

Chat integrations: keeping collaboration in one channel

If monitoring is about signals, chat integrations are about conversation. They centralize alert discussions, decisions, and actions in a familiar place where the team already works together. Instead of flipping between email, chat, dashboards, and the incident console, people respond in one thread, reference the incident number, and push the resolution forward.

Common chat tools you’ll see tied to PagerDuty:

• Slack: A common place for day-to-day collaboration. You can post incident updates, acknowledge alerts, and even trigger actions right from the chat window.

• Microsoft Teams: Brings incident conversations into a platform many organizations already use for meetings, channels, and files.

• Other chat/ collaboration channels: Depending on your team’s setup, you might route notifications to a dedicated channel, a project-specific space, or a shared incident channel that includes on-call and up-to-date stakeholders.

What makes chat integrations so valuable? They minimize context switching. A responder on call can see what happened, who’s involved, and what’s next—without leaving the chat app. They can assign tasks, request approvals, or launch a runbook, all in the same place. It’s collaboration with momentum, not a crusade through multiple apps.

A note on rhythm and governance

As you wire up monitoring and chat integrations, you’ll start feeling the rhythm of your incident workflow. Alerts arrive, context is enriched, on-call rotations are triggered, and teams begin to coordinate in real time. But with power comes responsibility. Too many integrations can create noise, and permissions can blur who can do what. A practical approach is to start with the core pair—monitoring and chat—and then layer in ITSM or automation tools as needed.

Beyond the core pair: other integration flavors

PagerDuty’s ecosystem doesn’t stop at monitoring and chat. You’ll see value in complementary connections, especially when your workflows cross boundaries:

• ITSM and ticketing tools: ServiceNow, Jira, Zendesk, and similar platforms can receive incidents, push updates, or create linked tickets. These help governance, post-incident reviews, and customer-facing communication.

• Collaboration and on-call tools: If your org uses a specific collaboration suite or a custom incident channel, there are usually ways to bridge it so the right people stay informed.

• Automation and runbooks: Integrations that bring automated actions into play—like starting a remediation script, opening a remediation task in a ticket system, or updating a status page—can speed up recovery.

The goal here isn’t to stack tools for the sake of it. It’s to create a composed ecosystem where data, people, and actions flow smoothly, with clear ownership and traceable history.

How to choose integrations that fit your team

If you’re building or refining an incident workflow, a few guiding questions help:

• What are the must-have data sources? If your team relies heavily on dashboards and logs to understand incidents, monitoring integrations should be front and center.

• Where does collaboration happen today? If most conversations live in Slack or Teams, prioritizing chat integrations will yield quicker wins.

• How complex are your on-call rules? If you’ve got multi-level escalation, make sure the routing logic is solid and that your integrations don’t bypass the approvals or handoffs you’ve designed.

• Do you want automation tied to incidents? If yes, consider runbooks and automation actions that can be triggered from the incident context.

Starting small and expanding thoughtfully is often the best path. Begin with monitoring plus chat, confirm the workflow makes sense in real life, then layer in ITSM or automation as needed. It’s easier to adjust one or two workflows than to untangle a sprawling, noisy system later on.

Practical tips to get the most from integrations

• Map your services and owners: When an incident hits, you want the right people alerted immediately. Clear ownership helps reduce confusion during the first minutes of an incident.

• Add context to alerts: Ensure monitors provide useful details—thresholds, recent changes, affected components—so responders don’t have to hunt for data.

• Create actionable runbooks: A runbook should tell responders exactly what to do, step by step, when an incident starts. Link it in the incident so teams can take action without leaving PagerDuty.

• Use test incidents: Regularly simulate incidents to validate your integrations and incident workflows. It’s surprising how many gaps show up only during a real event.

• Review and refine: After an incident, look at what worked, what didn’t, and how the integrations could help next time. Continuous improvement is the heart of effective incident response.

A vivid analogy to close the loop

Imagine your tech stack as a busy backstage crew at a theater. The monitoring tools are the spotlights and cameras—when something goes wrong, they flash a warning. The chat tools are the director’s microphone, keeping the cast and crew coordinated in real time. The incident itself is the scene that must be managed with precision: who enters when, what line to deliver, and how to wrap the show with a smooth resolution. The right mix of integrations keeps the show running, even if a prop breaks or a cue slips. That’s the value of a well-tuned integration strategy.

Bringing it home

Integrations are not just accessories; they’re the backbone of an effective incident response program. By tying monitoring data to a centralized incident workflow and pairing it with streamlined team communication, PagerDuty helps teams respond faster, make smarter decisions, and close incidents with confidence. The core pairing—monitoring tools that spark incidents and chat tools that coordinate action—creates a powerful loop: detect, discuss, decide, resolve.

If you’re looking to improve how your team handles incidents, start with the essentials and let the rest follow. Choose monitoring integrations that align with your tech stack, pair them with a chat setup that your people actually use, and keep the governance light but clear. With the right connections in place, you’ll notice a smoother tempo in incident response, fewer derailments, and a team that’s better equipped to bring systems back to health—together.