Observability

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A system should be testable, usable and observable. Observability is an attribute of a system which is supported by:

Metrics

In computers metrics is made up of timestamp, a values and some contextual metadata. For example:

0101200112:00:00 75% CPU [server name] [envronment] 

0101200112:00:00 75% RAM [server name] [envronment] 

Logs

Are discrete events written by OS, applications/processes running on a system. They typically contain,  date/time stamp, severity level, system name, message of event. 

Traces

Follow a request's path through a system capturing input/output values and execution duration along the way. They are used by developers to identify code path during troubleshooting.

Using APM tools like Dynatrace, New Relic, AppDynamics makes this a lot easier.

Observability provides detailed insights into what happened to the system and why.




Comments

  1. deanAugust 11, 2026 at 10:15 PM

    The article gives a concise and practical explanation of observability and why it is important for understanding system behavior. The distinction between metrics, logs, and traces is particularly useful, as each provides a different perspective during monitoring and troubleshooting. The examples of CPU and RAM metrics, event logs, and request traces make the concept easy to relate to real-world systems.

    The explanation also shows how observability can support modern infrastructure by combining different sources of operational information to understand what happened inside a system. Metrics provide measurable system conditions, logs capture discrete events, and traces follow requests across execution paths. These concepts are highly relevant to Cloud Computing Projects involving monitoring and managing distributed environments.

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  2. deanAugust 11, 2026 at 10:15 PM

    Another valuable point is the role of application performance monitoring tools such as Dynatrace, New Relic, and AppDynamics in simplifying troubleshooting and gaining deeper system insights. Observability can also contribute to identifying unusual behavior and improving the protection and reliability of cloud environments, making Cloud Security Projects a relevant direction for applying these monitoring concepts.

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