Monitoring involves the use of agents throughout an application’s environment to regularly collect performance-related metrics, such as load times and CPU usage, and identify performance bottlenecks. It traditionally focuses on known metrics and issues, which are defined in advance.

Observability, on the other hand, extends beyond this by continuously capturing performance and contextual data across applications and infrastructure. This approach not only tracks known issues but also identifies unforeseen problems, often referred to as “unknown unknowns"​

Importance of Observability in Business

Proactive Issue Resolution

Observability enables early detection and resolution of issues, thus preventing impacts on user experience and service level agreements (SLAs). This enhances system reliability and increases customer satisfaction.

Improved System Management

Highly observable systems are easier to manage, update, and troubleshoot due to the detailed insights they provide. This results in faster problem resolution and reduces system downtime.

Support for Modern Technologies

As businesses adopt agile and cloud-native technologies, observability facilitates these complex architectures by enabling continuous data collection, which is a significant improvement over traditional monitoring methods.

Automation and AI Capabilities

Advanced observability platforms use Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) to automate and optimize problem detection and resolution. This enhances performance and operational efficiency without the need for manual intervention.