OTel End User Working Group Presents: The Future of Observability Panel Discussion

By Adriana Villela (Lightstep) |

OpenTelemetry has greatly impacted the Observability landscape over the past few years. While it introduces an open standard for telemetry generation and collection, what is actually improving the lives of Observability teams?

Guests David Wynn, Austin Parker, Vijay Samuel, Nočnica Mellifera, and Iris Dyrmishi came together to share their experiences and insights on the evolution of Observability practices, in this panel hosted by the OpenTelemetry End User Working Group. The discussion centered around their journey with OpenTelemetry and how it has shaped their Observability practices. Watch the full recording:


For a quick summary, check out some of the key discussion takeaways below.

1- Observability Before OpenTelemetry

The panelists started off by talking about their experiences before OpenTelemetry. Challenges included the lack of standardization, the use of proprietary clients, and difficulties in monitoring large, complex systems. Observability practices were often driven by specific tools and technologies, leading to fragmented solutions.

Companies like eBay and Farfetch found value in adopting OpenTelemetry due to its standardization of telemetry data and its vendor-neutrality.

2- OpenTelemetry as a Game Changer

OpenTelemetry emerged as a game-changing solution for enabling Observability. It provided a standardized approach to instrumenting applications. The adoption of OpenTelemetry allowed for seamless integration across various systems and languages. The community-driven and open source nature of OpenTelemetry appealed to many organizations, making Observability more accessible and developer-friendly.

3- The OpenTelemetry Collector

The panelists talked about the OpenTelemetry Collector, and how they were able to use it to replace vendor-specific agents. Some organizations built their own Collector distributions to meet their own requirements using the Collector Builder tool tool. In doing so, they were able to include only the components that were applicable to their use case, including using custom processors.

4- Surprising Aspects of OpenTelemetry Adoption

Challenges included convincing teams to adopt OpenTelemetry, especially when components like Logs were not yet stable. The evolving nature of OpenTelemetry made sometimes challenging to keep up with new features and updates while ensuring that teams did not lag behind.

5- The People Problem of Observability

Observability, like so many issues in the tech industry is more of a people problem than a technical problem. Successful OpenTelemetry adoption and implementation required addressing cultural and organizational challenges, including leadership buy-in and developer acceptance.

Join us!

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Last modified October 20, 2023: Blog post summary: The Evolution of Observability Panel Discussion (#3405) (5084b238)