How to implement IT observability and track applications?

The business technology outlook is becoming increasingly complex. At the same time, technology is becoming more and more critical for organizations. In this context, a necessary concept emerges: IT observability.

The number of applications is growing exponentially. Data is accessible by users at any time and from any corner of the world.

Architectures include different clouds, internal infrastructures and edge implementations. The cloud, a great driver of technology adoption, enables modular systems with services that can be deployed in different parts of the world.

According to Nubiral data, until a few years ago, the development of a solution required a pool of ten to twelve pieces. Today, that number is usually between 20,000 and 40,000 pieces and can reach up to 100,000. And they all have to fit together.

IT observability is the intelligent evolution of monitoring. A set of practices and tools to manage and control distributed and complex architectures.

It allows users to monitor what is happening, detect anomalies and anticipate problems. But not from a perspective of whether a server is working or not, but from the perspective of how each technological inconvenience impacts the user experience.

IT Observability and Application Performance Management in Media Companies

Companies that create and distribute digital and multimedia content, for example, can obtain great value from observability.

Quality of experience is key for customers in this industry: a movie or series that takes a long time to load or cuts off abruptly, content that displays with poor quality, or a soccer game that shows up with delays, among other pain points.

All these are enough excuses to look for another provider. In fact, the way the industry is shaping up, it does not matter to have the best content in the world if the usability does not reach the standards expected by the user.

With an eye for observability, the teams responsible for operating these platforms can match anomalous data. In this way, they prevent service failures and ensure the best customer experience.

DevOps Application and Process Monitoring

An important challenge emerges for technical teams. It consists of seeking, from very early stages of solution development, the mechanisms to incorporate the transversal layer of IT observability.

The integration with DevOps practices (acronym for «development» and «operations») is fundamental to embed different strategies in early stages of the project. This includes both traditional monitoring techniques and new components, including:

– Telemetry. Remote measurement of physical quantities and subsequent forwarding of the information to the system operator.

– Canary deployment. Reduces the risk of testing by activating functionalities only for a group of users.

– A/B testing. Compares the performance of two versions to verify which one is more attractive to users.

– Proving. Verification that everything works by emulating user behavior.

– Chaotic testing. Testing that takes the application to a very high stress level to see how it reacts.

When this integration is successful, the transition from development environment to productive environment will be better controlled and the results will be visible faster.

IT Observability and Generative AI

Generative AI burst onto the scene just a year ago and has revolutionized everything. Of course, it also has value and impact in the world of IT observability.

There are two things to pay attention to. The first is how to incorporate the growing number of generative AI tools in the organization into the observability strategy. These are complex models that require analysis of the behaviors they may experience, their responses and whether their actions are in accordance with what is expected.

In this sense, there is a lot to learn, since it is a world that, despite the great speed at which it has developed, is still quite new.

The second aspect is to use generative AI to improve the results of IT observability. For example, giving a user the possibility to interact with observability tools and perform different actions through natural language instructions.

Conclusions

IT observability does not focus on whether a server is down or whether there are problems with a piece of network equipment. What it does is to focus on what happens to the business when technology fails.

It is an evolution of monitoring. Keep in mind that monitoring concentrates on gathering hard information on the state of the network, CPUs, servers and memory. Observability, on the other hand, explains how this impacts the business.

To clarify the concept, we can make an analogy with the world of healthcare. Monitoring provides the values. Observability is like a doctor who, with this data in hand, warns us how we should take care of ourselves to live longer and better.

At Nubiral we have the experience, the practical look and the knowledge of IT observability tools to help you take your company to the next level. We look forward to your contact: Schedule your meeting!