22 Jan 2025
1h 14m

Observability: the present and future, with Charity Majors

Podcast cover

The Pragmatic Engineer

This interview podcast features observability expert Charity Majors discussing the evolution of observability practices with host Gergely Orosz. The conversation begins with Majors' early experiences with observability at Parse and Facebook, leading into a discussion of the "three pillars" model (metrics, logs, and traces) and its limitations. Majors advocates for "Observability 2.0," emphasizing unified data storage for improved debugging and cost efficiency, highlighting the importance of high cardinality data and the role of OpenTelemetry in achieving vendor independence. The discussion also touches upon the integration of observability into development workflows, its relationship with SRE and DevOps, and the challenges of managing observability costs. A key takeaway is the recommendation to prioritize building observability into software from the outset, similar to writing tests, to accelerate development and improve overall system understanding.

Outlines

Part 1: Introduction and Foundations

Part 2: Evolution and Challenges

Part 3: Implementation and Applications

Part 4: Strategic Considerations

Sign in to continue reading, translating and more.

Continue
 
mindmap screenshot
Preview
preview episode cover
How to Get Rich: Every EpisodeNaval