Logs, metrics and traces have come to be known as the three pillars of observability. Now, there is a push to have a fourth pillar — snapshots. In this four-part microwebinar series now available on demand, we examine the observability and discuss how snapshots make it easier for developers to troubleshoot issues. Joining SD Times is Liran Haimovitch, co-founder and CTO at Rookout, which was recently acquired by APM and observability platform provider Dynatrace.
Episode 1: The Fourth Pillar of Observability
Why should SREs get all the fun? Everyone knows logging sucks and so SREs created two new pillars: metrics and traces to make their jobs easier. Well, logging sucks for developers too and they deserve – and need – better Observability. That’s where the fourth pillar of Observability comes in: Snapshots.
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Episode 2: Live Observability
In the first episode, we will discuss the fourth pillar of Observability and how Snapshots are so much better than logs. One of the big benefits of Snapshots in particular and agile Observability in general is that you can adapt your Observability in real-time without requiring code changes or redeployments.
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Episode 3: Cut Observability Costs with Developer-First Observability
If you dig down to the bottom of it, you’ll find that Observability will eat up any budget allocated to it and then some. That’s because the need for more Observability is rarely rooted in engineering needs. It is in fact coming from a much more primal place: the fear of the unknown. This is why Observability is a huge cost driver, growing year over year, and tremendously hard to optimize. Because anything you cut away will be quickly replaced by new data points.
The irony is that over 95% of the data is never used. Engineers are collecting and storing it out of FOMO – the fear of missing out on logs and other Observability pillars that may be useful one day. Dynamic Observability is how you can turn it around on its head.
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Episode 4: Troubleshooting & debugging across the SDLC
Everybody is talking about the importance of shift-left and they’re definitely right. But – little by little, we’re seeing the opposite movement. We’re seeing the SDLC itself shifting right. Today, engineers spend most of their time developing and testing code in production-like environments. To meet those challenges, we need to adapt appropriate Observability tools throughout the SDLC.
