anavem.
Back to Glossary
O

OpenTelemetry

OpenTelemetry is an observability framework providing APIs, libraries, and tools for telemetry data collection.

What is OpenTelemetry?

OpenTelemetry (OTel) is a vendor-neutral observability framework providing standardized APIs, libraries, and tools for generating, collecting, and exporting telemetry data (metrics, logs, traces).

OpenTelemetry Components

API (interfaces), SDK (implementations), Collector (data processing), OTLP (protocol).

Common Misconceptions

  • "OpenTelemetry is a backend" - Framework, not storage
  • "OpenTelemetry replaces existing tools" - Integrates with them
  • "Auto-instrumentation covers everything" - Manual instrumentation often needed