Cloud Native Observability

Chapter 4. Open Source Telemetry Standards: Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, and Beyond

In the previous chapters we discussed how observability data has been growing in scale while delivering diminishing business outcomes. We delved into real-life use cases on how well-known companies have solved observability data issues. Finally, we introduced a new framework for reliably solving the same issue, distilling the core principles that we have gathered from our experience solving those real-world use cases.

In this chapter, we will explore implementations using open source software and how open source instrumentation has increasingly become the de facto standard for monitoring and observability in cloud native environments. We’ll trace the evolution of this trend, highlighting the pivotal roles of Prometheus and OpenTelemetry (OTel) in shaping the landscape. These tools have simplified the collection and analysis of vast amounts of telemetry data and established new benchmarks for flexibility, scalability, and community-driven development in observability.

Instrumentation Before Prometheus and OTel

Before the industry standardized on Prometheus and OTel, many companies were forced to use proprietary collection solutions, such as AppDynamics, Dynatrace, or New Relic. These vendors control the instrumentation and aggregation of telemetry using agents, which are software processes that run alongside an application to collect data and then send it to an external server.

If you are running ...