Telemetry and observability
Telemetry is jargon for logs, metrics, and traces. This is observed by remote monitoring platforms that use it to learn how systems work, diagnose problems, and measure and optimise performance. A highly observable system is one that generates high-quality telemetry.
Consider the following quick example. You have an in-house cloud native application comprising lots of small microservices. You also have a centralised monitoring platform. Each microservice outputs telemetry that is collected, stored, and analysed by the monitoring platform.
As mentioned already, cloud native telemetry comes in three major flavours that we sometimes call signal types, verticals, or classes.
- Logs
- Metrics
- Traces
Each serves a different purpose, but collectively they provide detailed insights that can be vital in understanding, troubleshooting, and optimising microservices applications.
The OpenTelemetry project is an incubating CNCF project that aims to standardise...
