Observability

Observability is the ability to understand a system's internal state by examining its external outputs: metrics, logs, and traces.

What is Observability?

Observability is the ability to understand the internal state of a system by examining its outputs, enabling teams to ask any question about system behavior without deploying new code.

Three Pillars

Metrics (quantitative measurements), Logs (event records), Traces (request flows).

Common Misconceptions

"Observability equals monitoring" - Monitoring is a subset
"More data is better" - Quality over quantity
"Observability is just tooling" - Culture and practices too