Cloud Monitoring (disclaimer: I work on it) can actually be configured to poll as often as every 30 seconds from each location, or just every 30 seconds in the case of agent checks. I believe we default to 1 minute intervals, but if you want to change it you can browse to your check in our Control Panel and click the little edit icon where it says "Period: 60 seconds".
This is either brand new (within the last few weeks) or your coworkers don't know anything about it. The whole monitoring thing has been a farce for a year or more, as it's been coming real soon now, then in beta, then severely limited, then costs money, etc.
