This is a cool setup, but with the caveat that Allan stated, it forces you to think a little more about a layer that most systems people are less experienced in. The software approach is particularly useful because one could take the "healthcheck" setup and have it keep your alerting/dashboards in sync with reality (e.g. do healthcheck, fork: return exit code; POST {$hostname: 'ok'} to metric collector).

I also see that Shutterstock is actively hiring. For anyone looking, Shutterstock is a great place to work and employs some really brilliant people.

Disclaimer: Ex-Shutterstock employee