The topic of continuous profiling has been an ongoing discussion in the observability world for some time. I said back in 2021 that profiling was set to be the next major telemetry signal in observability, and in fact, since then there’s been growing interest in profiles. Startups and large observability vendors have gotten into this domain. A significant recent step was when the OpenTelemetry project decided to add profiles to its core signals and formalized the open unified specification for that.

Kubernetes has changed the way many organizations approach the deployment of their applications. But despite its benefits, the additional layers of abstraction and reams of data can cause complexity around Kubernetes monitoring. We’ve seen so much of these challenges borne out in the results of the 2024 Observability Pulse survey. In the survey report, 36% of respondents say Kubernetes poses a challenge, and just 10% of organizations say they have full observability into their environments.

The more data you have, the harder it becomes to read through it, let alone identify trends or crucial patterns. Couple that with a shortage of time, and the ability not only to visualize but also to communicate with your data becomes paramount.

Organizations like yours are increasingly reliant on complex IT infrastructures to support their operations. Pervasive use of Kubernetes and microservices architectures continues to up the ante. Amidst this complexity, achieving comprehensive visibility into systems and applications has become both imperative for ensuring performance, reliability, and security, while also becoming ever-more challenging to achieve.