Observability Engineering, 2nd Edition

Chapter 32. Where Do We Go From Here?

Welcome to the end of the second edition. You made it.

We have covered observability from many different angles in this book: its origins in control theory, how software engineers should instrument and understand the code they write, deep dives and use cases, and how technical decision-makers should think about observability for their orgs.

Our goal in this edition was to update the technical content, but also to underscore how observability is derived from first principles and reasoning that endures, so you can guide your own teams and organizations through turbulent waters.

Our industry is undergoing a convulsive period of compressed change. Roles and identities are being stressed in new ways. Anxiety is endemic because the things we long took for granted are no longer safe bets.

In this chapter, we’ll look at where the industry is headed over the next few years, and what engineers and technical decision-makers can do to prepare.

Developers Must Return to Production

Before we look at what’s next, we must address the “wish” we made at the close of the first edition (paraphrased slightly):

The space we will be watching closely is that of developer workflows…Developers need fast feedback loops and the ability to understand how each code change affects users in production. Incredibly few developers have the ability to do that.

We believe the industry needs fundamentally better developer workflows in production, and we predict observability ...