OpenTelemetry and OpenTracing are open-source projects used to instrument application code for generating telemetry data. While OpenTelemetry can help you generate logs, metrics, and traces, OpenTracing focuses on generating traces for distributed applications. If you’re thinking of choosing between OpenTelemetry and OpenTracing, go for OpenTelemetry. OpenTracing is now deprecated, and users of OpenTracing are advised to migrate to OpenTelemetry.

OpenTelemetry libraries can be used to monitor MongoDB interactions. In this tutorial, we will learn how we can monitor MongoDB with OpenTelemetry libraries to analyze query execution and identify performance bottlenecks. Most modern applications have distributed architecture thanks to cloud and containerization. In cloud-native applications, it is necessary to track user requests across services and components like databases.

OpenTelemetry is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation(CNCF) project aimed at standardizing the way we instrument applications for generating telemetry data(logs, metrics, and traces). However, OpenTelemetry does not provide storage and visualization for the collected telemetry data. For visualizing OpenTelemetry data, you need an OpenTelemetry UI. The data collected by OpenTelemetry can be sent to a backend of your choice, which can then be visualized.

In today’s digital world, performance and agility are essential for running a successful business, and in the technology arena, there is no exception. Over the past few years, there has been a significant rise in the use of cloud computing technology as more companies prefer scalability of resources, flexibility in experimenting with new technologies, reducing cost by eliminating the need to invest in on-premises hardware, etc.

OpenTelemetry can be used for generating and collecting telemetry signals like logs, metrics, and traces. The advantage of using OpenTelemetry for observability is that it is open-source and frees you from vendor lock-in. You can use OpenTelemetry for multiple use cases OpenTelemetry is an open-source project which has emerged as the standard for achieving comprehensive observability in modern applications.

On a recent thread on the CNCF Slack’s OTel Collector channel, a user asked a question that shone a light on a topic I don't think has been effectively discussed elsewhere.

In a recent reddit thread, I got into a conversation about justifying the cost of observability. It got to a really basic question about running a tech company: how do you know that any cost is justified? While a small number of expenses have clear and direct business values, a bunch of other costs, I would even say most costs, just aren’t that clear cut.

Are you looking for an OpenTelemetry alternative? Then you've come to the right place. There are no good alternatives to OpenTelemetry if your use case involves generating different types of telemetry signals like logs, metrics, and traces and their collection. In certain use cases, like monitoring only metrics or time-series data, you can use a tool like Prometheus. If you’re sure you want an OpenTelemetry alternative, then let me point you to these three here.