A new Common Language for IT pros: Full Stack Observability

In a multicloud world with exponential growth in volume of data and endpoints, we have a lot to keep our eyes on. From infrastructure, to applications, to ISPs and end-users’ devices, cloud environments are increasingly complex and information is flowing at record velocities. When something goes wrong for the customer along this web of rapid information, how do you follow the breadcrumbs?

Admitting there is a problem is often considered step one in problem solving frameworks. Here’s one if you’re stuck. Once you admit it, however, what comes next? With so many moving parts in a modern cloud environment, it can be hard to pin down exactly where the troublemaking component is.

As the successors of traditional IT monitoring, observability services don’t come in as a set of eyes and boots to join the search party. They are the flag raisers scanning the horizons and alerting us of upcoming danger. With well defined performance metrics, platforms distinguish between applications that are running efficiently, experiencing some trouble, or in the red (perhaps greater than two standard deviations from the norm). This element of prevention reduces downtime and ensures no surprises. With so much amazing technology to delight consumers, they have come to expect a perfect performance every time.

Slow is the new down

 End users have no tolerance for downtime nor latency. Businesses can afford this to a lesser extent. Some ecommerce platforms can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour, making every second valuable. The days of war room meetings and ‘all hands on deck’ calls can be gone with the real time visibility the right technology partner can provide. The business need arose to access real-time telemetry data through a single pane of glass to zero in on problems or prevent them altogether.

Enter full stack observability (FSO), stage left. Regardless of whether the problem is in your infrastructure, applications, third-party networks or SaaS, FSO empowers root cause analyses and reduces the mean time to innocence. The granularity is impressive as the right FSO software can get you into the exact line of code that is causing the issue

Beyond problem solving, monitoring, and prevention across the entire IT stack, observability helps your environments run cleaner with smart resource provisioning and hybrid cost optimization. Full stack observability is an enabler of automation and product integration, and with this increased visibility comes reduced response time to threats. Users with FSO services were almost entirely protected from Log4j vulnerabilities earlier this year, being able to stop the call of the vulnerability without having to shut the application down at all. Learn more about Log4j here.

Common language connected to business outcomes

As we often come back to at Solve, the business context is everything. We are not technologists for technology’s sake. Though we love the tech, there is a business need behind all of our actions. Full stack observability helps us speak a common language and take the same bird’s-eye view without being in the same room or even on a call. Just like collaboration tools Slack and Microsoft Teams, observability was unintentionally built for a pandemic induced remote workforce.

Many people experienced communication gaps when they migrated to WFH and the cloud. Observability helps to align teams across the entire organization on their shared priorities. It has never been easier to pinpoint events and determine outcomes across all business units. Identify and bridge gaps that vended solutions can't provide and support your DevOps and DevSecOps teams by getting a full stack observability partner today.

Join the Conversation: Find Solve on Twitter and LinkedIn, or follow along via RSS.

Stay on top of what's next in technology

Learn about tech trends, innovations and how technologists are working today.