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observability
Concepts that power modern infrastructure
What is observability?
Observability is the ability to understand the internal state of a system by examining its outputs.
It goes beyond monitoring by giving you the context to ask questions you didn't even know you needed to ask.
The foundation
Three signals, one complete picture
Metrics
Numeric measurements over time
CPU usage, request latency, error rates, throughput
Logs
Discrete events from your apps
Error messages, debug info, state changes
Traces
The path of a request
See where time is spent across services
Together, these signals let you
Detect issues
Find the cause
Fix it faster
SLI
Service Level Indicator
A carefully defined quantitative measure of some aspect of the level of service that is provided.
Request latency
Error rate
Throughput
Availability
Example
95th percentile
latency < 200ms
A realistic SLI for web application response time
Example
99.9%
availability monthly
A realistic SLO for critical infrastructure
SLO
Service Level Objective
A target value or range of values for a service level that is measured by an SLI.
SLOs define the acceptable level of service for your customers.
Best practices
Key principles for effective observability
Measure what users experience
Not just what's easy to measure. Focus on the user perspective.
Define clear objectives
Establish measurable SLOs that align with business goals.
Use meaningful indicators
Choose SLIs that accurately reflect service performance.
Monitor continuously
Maintain real-time visibility to detect and respond quickly.