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OpenTelemetry Profiling: A Game Changer for Observability?

Apr 18, 2023 | Episode

OpenTelemetry Profiling is coming soon to help round out what is possible with OpenTelemetry instrumentation. Josh Lee from Instana dives into the details.

What’s the Big Deal with OpenTelemetry and Profiling?

First off, let’s talk OpenTelemetry. It’s like the Swiss Army knife of observability tools – APIs, SDKs, the works. It helps you gather all sorts of telemetry data: metrics, logs, traces, you name it. The cool part? It makes all this data play nice together, no matter what tech you’re using.

Now, enter profiling. This bad boy digs deep into your code’s performance at runtime. It’s like having x-ray vision for your app’s resource usage and bottlenecks. The idea is to add profiling as a new signal type in OpenTelemetry. Imagine having a universal language for performance data across all your tech stacks. Pretty neat, right?

Why Should You Care?

Here’s why this could be a game-changer:

One Ring to Rule Them All: OpenTelemetry profiling could finally bring some order to the chaos of different profilers out there.

See the Forest AND the Trees: With profiling in the mix, you’re not just seeing the big picture – you can zoom in on exactly which bits of code are hogging resources.

Pinch Those Pennies: Spot resource hogs quickly and keep those cloud bills in check. Your CFO will thank you.

Play Nice with Others: When everyone speaks the same language, all your performance tools can work together seamlessly. It’s like a happy little ecosystem.

    But What About the Overhead?

    I know what you’re thinking – “Won’t all this data collection slow things down?” Well, they’ve thought of that too:

    • Sampling: Instead of measuring every millisecond, they’ll take snapshots. It’s like time-lapse photography for your code.
    • Local Aggregation: Crunch the numbers locally before sending them off. Less data on the wire means happier networks.

    It’s Not All Sunshine and Rainbows

    Of course, there are some hurdles to overcome:

    • Stateful vs. Stateless: The need for aggregation might mean a shift from stateless to stateful protocols. It’s a bit of a paradigm shift.
    • Trust Issues: Running an agent on your host for profiling? Some folks might get a bit squirrely about security.
    • David vs. Goliath: Right now, the big guns in profiling are mostly vendor solutions. The open-source world has some catching up to do.

    So, Is It Really a Game Changer?

    Josh Lee gave it a solid 6 or 7 out of 10 on the game-changer scale. Not too shabby! It’s definitely a step in the right direction for OpenTelemetry to give us the full observability picture.

    Real-World Stuff

    Here’s a cool tidbit: Instana and AWS are teaming up to use real-time memory stats for right-sizing AWS servers. It’s all about keeping those cloud costs in check. Let’s face it, we’ve all had that “yikes” moment when the cloud bill comes in. These observability tools could be the secret sauce to figuring out if your app is expensive because it’s complex or just poorly designed.

    What’s Next?

    OpenTelemetry profiling is still cooking, but it’s definitely one to watch. If they pull this off, it could revolutionize how we understand and optimize our apps’ performance.

    So, there you have it, folks! OpenTelemetry profiling – coming soon to an observability stack near you. Keep your eyes peeled, because this could be the next big thing in making sure our apps run like well-oiled machines. Stay curious, stay observant, and may your servers always be perfectly sized!

    Show Notes

    GUEST: Josh Lee (Instana)
    LINKEDIN PROFILE:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuamlee/

    Josh Lee’s presentation at CMG Impact 2023:

    https://www.cmg.org/2023/02/hey-nice-profile-the-future-of-profiling-in-opentelemetry/

    Check out this other podcast with Josh Lee.

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