A Bootiful Podcast Elastic’s developer advocate extraordinairre Philip Krenn on the state of logging
Oct 30, 2025
In this discussion, Philip Krenn, Developer Advocate at Elastic, delves into modern logging practices and the significance of the ELK stack. He explains the evolution of logging, from structured versus freeform logs to log collection strategies. Philip highlights the business value in capturing metrics through logging and explores how OpenTelemetry can streamline instrumentation. He even shares a quirky project involving a coffee machine, showcasing how observability can be fun. Tune in for insights on scaling logs and leveraging AI for better log parsing!
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Logs Are The Core Observability Signal
- Logs are the primary observability signal developers start with and they remain indispensable.
- Centralizing logs enables debugging, dashboards, and business metrics beyond developer notes.
Separate Logger API From Backend
- Java's logging ecosystem separates API from backend, offering flexibility in destinations and formats.
- You can combine free-text messages with structured metadata like MDC for richer context.
Adopt OpenTelemetry For Vendor-Neutral Logging
- Standardize on OpenTelemetry to avoid vendor lock and simplify instrumentation.
- Send OTLP to a collector and forward to your backend to keep instrumentation vendor-neutral.