Purvi Kanal, Senior Software Engineer at Honeycomb, discusses frontend observability and real user monitoring. Topics include evolution of monitoring tools, challenges in correlating data types, and the role of OpenTelemetry in improving observability. The conversation highlights the importance of real-time updates and diagnostic tools for detecting issues quickly in web applications.
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Quick takeaways
Frontend observability has transitioned from basic page load times to complex user interactions for addressing unknown unknowns.
Standardized JavaScript and browser infrastructures have mitigated front-end compatibility challenges, enabling developers to focus on business logic.
Deep dives
Evolution of Front-End Observability
Front-end observability, also known as real user monitoring, has evolved significantly in the past decade due to the changing landscape of front-end engineering. With the complexity of modern web applications increasing and interactions becoming more intricate, monitoring has transitioned from basic page load times to encompassing complex user interactions. The tools have evolved from synthetic monitoring to real user monitoring, enabling the correlation of user-reported issues with actual crash reports, pushing observability towards surfacing unknown unknowns and proactively addressing front-end team needs.
Challenges in Identifying Front-End Issues
In the past, diagnosing front-end issues required reproducibility, which posed a challenge due to varied user environments and device settings. Developers grappled with recreating reported problems across different devices and browser versions, hindering efficient troubleshooting. The evolution of standardized JavaScript and browser infrastructures in recent years has mitigated these compatibility challenges, enabling developers to focus more on business logic than browser-specific issues.
Observability and Security Concerns
Observability in the front end presents security challenges as an additional attack vector. To address security risks, OpenTelemetry promotes the use of an OpenTelemetry collector within users' infrastructure as a secure intermediary for telemetry data transmission. This intermediary step enhances data protection and prevents potential vulnerabilities such as cross-site resource utilization, ensuring data integrity and browser security.
Enhanced Data Collection and Security Measures
Front-end observability platforms like Honeycomb emphasize rich, wide data collection by enabling easy integration of attributes for detailed event analysis. To maintain data security and authenticity, Honeycomb recommends deploying OpenTelemetry collectors within users' infrastructure to facilitate secure telemetry transmission. By leveraging open-source tools and sampling mechanisms like Refinery, users can enhance observability while adhering to stringent security protocols.
One of the fastest areas of growth in observability is frontend observability, or real user monitoring. This is the practice of monitoring and analyzing the performance, behavior, and user experience of web applications from the user’s perspective.
Purvi Kanal is a Senior Software Engineer at Honeycomb. She joins the podcast to talk about the evolution and status of real user monitoring.
This episode is hosted by Lee Atchison. Lee Atchison is a software architect, author, and thought leader on cloud computing and application modernization. His best-selling book, Architecting for Scale (O’Reilly Media), is an essential resource for technical teams looking to maintain high availability and manage risk in their cloud environments.
Lee is the host of his podcast, Modern Digital Business, an engaging and informative podcast produced for people looking to build and grow their digital business with the help of modern applications and processes developed for today’s fast-moving business environment. Listen at mdb.fm. Follow Lee at softwarearchitectureinsights.com, and see all his content at leeatchison.com.