I predict that ... by the end of 2020, the technical definition of observability will no longer be subject to hedging or fudging or any true debate.
Monitoring tools will be shamed into calling themselves monitoring tools once again. Some (not all) monitoring teams will too.
Monitoring tools will be shamed into calling themselves monitoring tools once again. Some (not all) monitoring teams will too.
I am kinda surprised how immune the industry has been to the monitoring and logging companies' dogged efforts to crawl under the observability blankie and insist that o11y == telemetry.
These active efforts to confuse the market are annoying. But I expect they are nearly over.
These active efforts to confuse the market are annoying. But I expect they are nearly over.
The main reason they've been able to do it this long is that ... @honeycombio is still the only observability tool out there, the only one that meets the technical bar for debugging unknown-unknowns.
(That technical bar and detailed explanation is here: honeycomb.io/blog/so-you-wa…)
(That technical bar and detailed explanation is here: honeycomb.io/blog/so-you-wa…)
They are rather cynically leveraging the fact that all data tools sound alike and look alike.
But this strategy becomes much less tenable once there are two, three, or more observability tools in the world. I expect that to happen in 2020.
But this strategy becomes much less tenable once there are two, three, or more observability tools in the world. I expect that to happen in 2020.
It's clear that the message of o11y resonates with engineers. Everybody needs it -- to identify outliers, to slice and dice by individual users or apps, to trace apps & services.
There's no going back. Every tool is working feverishly to add raw events and the rest of it.
There's no going back. Every tool is working feverishly to add raw events and the rest of it.
