Observability for Developers: What You Need to Know?

In this episode, we discuss the intricacies of observability in microservices with Adriana Villela, a principal developer advocate at Dynatrace and an OpenTelemetry maintainer. Adriana shares insights about the importance of properly instrumenting code, managing technical debt, and balancing the environmental impact of observability data. She also delves into practical advice for getting started with OpenTelemetry and the importance of community contributions. Join us to pick up practical tips on improving your observability practices — and learn how to make smarter decisions that help you sleep better at night, even while running complex distributed systems.

00:00 Introduction to Observability

01:22 Meet Adriana Villela

03:40 The Role of Developer Advocacy

06:27 Challenges in Observability

08:05 Understanding OpenTelemetry

15:07 Manual vs. Auto Instrumentation

20:25 Best Practices for Instrumentation

22:58 Understanding Instrumentation Importance

23:29 Defining Observability

24:14 Cost and Environmental Impact of Tracing

25:57 Effective Observability Practices

28:23 Choosing the Right Technology Stack

32:37 Balancing Cost and Data Storage

39:36 Learning and Contributing to OpenTelemetry

47:20 Final Thoughts