A new concept of monitoring - Observability

A new concept of monitoring - Observability

The concept of observability emerged in the 1960s, introduced by Rudolf E. Kálmán in his Control Theory[1] on the development of a model to control dynamic systems in industry processes. The term is defined as "a measure of how well a system's internal states can be inferred from knowledge of its external outputs". Adapted to IT, observability arises in the context of creating software and applications with distributed microservice architectures, aiming at a complete view of the flow of events that occur in a system and its performance.

Observability allows developers to raise the level of customer experience of their software, which is increasingly complex thanks to new technologies such as cloud native, DevOps, microservices, containers and virtualizations, and allows immediate interventions when errors are noticed. In traditional IT monitoring, difficulties come from the lack of scalability and intelligent analytics in the development environment, in addition to time-consuming problem detection. With observability, a plan is created that helps IT teams to produce quality software on a large scale; build a sustainable culture of innovation; optimize investments cloud native. It then comes in as a resource to provide tools that collect actionable data that immediately report problems, diagnose their causes, and help resolve them.

Modern architectures call for a new monitoring concept, as IT needs to rapidly and continuously produce and release new resources and experiences. Today, organizations work with microservice architectures that work in an integrated way, where everything is programmed and controlled by software. Automation reduces repetitive work and improves delivery reliability, but it is not without its flaws. Therefore, teams need to monitor their automation tools in a shared way and collect data about each component of a system from metrics, events, traces and logs, essential elements for generating insights. The ability to obtain a broader and more integrated view of all data in one place ensures greater control of the performance of the digital architecture, reducing operational and labor costs.

Observability can be understood as a means to build and operate more reliable software for customers. When properly applied, it brings benefits such as faster innovation and implementation, reduced costs, better understanding of how systems work and greater awareness of how customers engage with software, adding value to companies and businesses.

Why observability today?

Due to the greater complexity of technology and application construction; by the greater risks involved in dynamic structures; the need for instant problem detection and reversal; by the diversity of tools used to correlate multiple data.

https://www.opservices.com.br/observabilidade/

https://www.azion.com/pt-br/blog/o-que-e-observabilidade/

http://www.tecnisys.com.br/noticias/2021/vamos-falar-sobre-observabilidade

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3607980/what-is-observability-software-monitoring-on-steroids.html

https://www.correiobraziliense.com.br/euestudante/trabalho-e-formacao/2021/05/4926392-apagao-na-area-de-ti-sobram-vagas-mas-falta-mao-de-obra. html

[1] Kalman R. E., “On the General Theory of Control Systems”, Proceedings of the First International Congress on Automatic Control, Butterworth, London, 1960.