In today’s interconnected world, applications no longer exist in silos. Instead, they span multiple technology stacks, integrating mobile devices, cloud services, and legacy systems like mainframes. For IT operations teams and site reliability engineers (SREs), ensuring these hybrid systems run smoothly is no small feat. This is where Open Telemetry, a game-changing framework for observability, steps in. Let’s dive into what Open Telemetry is, how it works, and why it’s reshaping the way we monitor and troubleshoot complex systems.
The Challenge of Observability in Hybrid Applications
Modern applications are a patchwork of technologies:
- Frontend Interfaces: Often triggered by mobile or web applications.
- Cloud Services: The backbone for processing and scalability.
- Mainframes: Critical legacy systems that still power key transactions in industries like finance and healthcare.
Understanding the performance and interactions across these systems is crucial. However, most organizations rely on 4 to 7 different monitoring tools to piece together a picture of system health. This fragmented approach slows down detection, isolation, and resolution of IT issues, costing time and resources.
What is Open Telemetry?
Open Telemetry (OTel) is an open-source observability framework designed to standardize the collection and transmission of telemetry data across diverse systems. Unlike vendor-specific solutions, Open Telemetry is vendor-agnostic, supported by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), and actively developed by a community of IT vendors and open-source contributors.
Key Components of Telemetry Data
- Metrics: Quantitative data like CPU usage, memory consumption, and request rates.
- Traces: Records of how requests travel through a system, enabling visibility into the execution path.
- Logs: Detailed event records that provide context for incidents and errors.
By unifying these data types, Open Telemetry creates a comprehensive picture of system performance.
How Open Telemetry Works: The Basics
To harness the power of Open Telemetry, let’s break down its core concepts:
1. Instrumentation
Applications or their underlying environments need to be instrumented to generate telemetry data. This can be done in two ways:
- Automatic Instrumentation: Supported in many programming languages, requiring minimal setup.
- Manual Instrumentation: Using SDKs provided by Open Telemetry to customize data collection.
2. Data Generation
Once instrumented, the system generates telemetry data in the Open Telemetry Protocol (OTLP). This protocol ensures interoperability and standardization across platforms.
3. Spans and Correlation
Telemetry data is organized into spans, which represent individual units of work. These spans are correlated across systems to provide an end-to-end view of transactions.
4. Collector
The Open Telemetry Collector processes telemetry data by:
- Filtering irrelevant data.
- Enriching information by correlating multiple sources.
- Forwarding data to observability backends for visualization and analysis.
Observability Backends: Putting Telemetry Data to Work
Open Telemetry itself is not a product; instead, it feeds data into various observability backends. These tools—both open-source and vendor-provided—process the data to deliver actionable insights. Key capabilities include:
- Performance Dashboards: Visualizing application health and infrastructure metrics.
- Trace Views: Mapping critical journeys, such as a mobile transaction that updates a mainframe database.
- Integrated Insights: Combining metrics, traces, and logs to pinpoint performance bottlenecks.
Example: Imagine a customer initiates a transaction on a mobile app. With Open Telemetry, you can trace this journey across the mobile app, cloud services, and mainframe, identifying issues in any layer.
Why Open Telemetry Matters
The benefits of adopting Open Telemetry are profound, especially for organizations managing hybrid systems:
1. Unified Observability
Open Telemetry provides a single framework for collecting data across platforms, eliminating silos.
2. Faster Issue Resolution
By standardizing and correlating telemetry data, IT teams can:
- Detect issues in real-time.
- Isolate the root cause quickly.
- Take targeted actions, either independently or with subject matter experts.
3. Cost Efficiency
Open Telemetry supports both:
- Modern Cloud-Native Applications: Built on microservices, containers, and serverless architectures.
- Legacy Systems: Including mainframes, which remain critical in many industries.
Real-World Application: End-to-End Visibility in Action
Consider a financial services application:
- A customer logs in via a mobile app.
- The request triggers a series of operations, from authentication in the cloud to transaction processing on a mainframe.
With Open Telemetry:
- Metrics track the response time of each component.
- Traces map the customer’s journey across the system.
- Logs capture any errors or unusual events.
If the transaction experiences delays, IT teams can immediately pinpoint whether the issue lies in the mobile app, cloud services, or mainframe, reducing downtime and improving customer satisfaction.
Embracing the Future of Observability
Open Telemetry is more than just a framework; it’s a paradigm shift in how we approach observability. Standardizing telemetry data collection across diverse systems empowers organizations to achieve true end-to-end visibility. Whether you’re managing cloud-native applications or maintaining decades-old mainframes, Open Telemetry ensures your IT operations are equipped to meet the demands of modern systems.
Conclusion
As businesses increasingly rely on hybrid applications, the need for robust, unified observability becomes paramount. Open Telemetry is paving the way for seamless integration, faster issue resolution, and better system performance. By adopting this open framework, organizations can unlock the full potential of their IT ecosystems, delivering reliability and efficiency at every level. If you’re ready to elevate your observability strategy, now is the time to explore what Open Telemetry can do for your organization. At VE3, we specialise in application modernisation, utilising our expertise to assess your existing technology infrastructure and identify improvement areas.Whether it’s fintech application modernisation, overall application modernisation and optimisation, or the utilisation of cutting-edge application modernisation technology, we tailor our approach to meet your unique needs. contact us or visit us for a closer look at how VE3 can drive your organization’s success. Let’s shape the future together.
