

OpenObservability Talks
Dotan Horovits
On OpenObservability Talks we discuss harnessing the power of open source to advance observability initiatives for developers, DevOps and SRE practitioners around the world.
We live-stream the episodes on Twitch and YouTube Live - tune in to see us live, and chime in with your comments and questions on the live chat.
https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalks
You can find us on X (Twitter) @openobserv and BlueSky @openobservability.bsky.social
We live-stream the episodes on Twitch and YouTube Live - tune in to see us live, and chime in with your comments and questions on the live chat.
https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalks
You can find us on X (Twitter) @openobserv and BlueSky @openobservability.bsky.social
Episodes
Mentioned books

10 snips
Sep 28, 2025 • 1h 1min
Cloud Native Spotlight: KEDA & Dapr Projects - OpenObservability Talks S6E04
In this discussion, Yaron Schneider, co-creator of Dapr and KEDA, shares insights from his extensive experience in cloud architecture. He highlights how Dapr provides easy abstractions for developers across cloud platforms and the critical role KEDA plays in event-driven autoscaling. Yaron further explores the importance of observability with tracing over logs in distributed systems. Additionally, he touches on the intersection of AI and Dapr, emphasizing innovative durability features for automated agents. A must-listen for enthusiasts of cloud-native tech!

Aug 30, 2025 • 59min
ClickStack: ClickHouse’s New Observability Stack Unveiled - OpenObservability Talks S6E03
The ClickHouse open source project has gained interest in the observability community, thanks to its outstanding performance benchmarks. Now ClickHouse is doubling down on observability with the release of ClickStack, a new open source observability stack that bundles in ClickHouse, OpenTelemetry and HyperDX frontend. I invited Mike Shi, the co-founder of HyperDX and co-creator of ClickStack, to tell us all about this new project. Mike is Head of Observability at ClickHouse, and brings prior observability experience with Elasticsearch and more.You can read the recap post: https://medium.com/p/73f129a179a3/Show Notes:00:00 episode and guest intro04:38 taking the open source path as an entrepreneur10:51 the HyperDX observability user experience 16:08 challenges in implementing observability directly on ClickHouse20:03 intro to ClickStack and incorporating OpenTelemetry32:35 balancing simplicity and flexibility36:15 SQL vs. Lucene query languages 39:06 performance, cardinality and the new JSON type52:14 use cases in production by OpenAI, Anthropic, Tesla and more55:38 episode outroResources:HyperDX https://github.com/hyperdxio/hyperdx ClickStack https://clickhouse.com/docs/use-cases/observability/clickstack Shopify’s Journey to Planet-Scale Observability: https://medium.com/p/9c0b299a04ddClickHouse: Breaking the Speed Limit for Observability and Analytics https://medium.com/p/2004160b2f5e New JSON data type for ClickHouse: https://clickhouse.com/blog/a-new-powerful-json-data-type-for-clickhouseSocials:BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/openobservability.bsky.socialTwitter: https://twitter.com/OpenObservLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/openobservability/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalksDotan Horovits============Twitter: @horovitsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/horovitsMastodon: @horovits@fosstodonBlueSky: @horovits.bsky.socialMike Shi=======Twitter: https://x.com/MikeShi42LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeshi42BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mikeshi42.bsky.socialOpenObservability Talks episodes are released monthly, on the last Thursday of each month and are available for listening on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube.

Jul 30, 2025 • 1h 7min
Highlights from CNCF’s First Open Observability Summit - OpenObservability Talks S6E02
We are overdue for a vendor neutral industry wide event dedicated to our favorite topic - open observability.Last month (June 2025) the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) ran the first-ever Open Observability Summit, bringing together the world’s best experts in the field in a day packed with talks from project maintainers, end users and practitioners.We’re proud partners of the event, and are here to bring you the highlights from this industry-shaping event.This special episode has two parts, one recorded onsite before the event, covering conference goals, and insights from the talk submissions, and the other recorded after the event, covering the highlights of the events and the talks. The guests for is episode are two observability veterans: Alok Bhide, member of the event’s content committee and head of product innovation at Chronosphere; and Henrik Rexed, developer advocate at Dynatrace, CNCF Ambassador, and host of Is It Observable podcast.Catch up on everything you need to know from the first-ever Open Observability Summit.You can read the recap post: https://medium.com/p/d42c8826d6a5/Show Notes:00:00 - intro02:52 - Part 1 pre-event03:40 - guest intro Alok Bhide04:49 - a new community event for open observability06:58 - talk submission highlights from the CFP content reviewer12:34 - a view of the open observability stack and its use 16:42 - Fluent Bit alignment with OpenTelemetry20:08 - AI in observability25:34 - Part 2 talk highlights26:22 - Fluent Bit vs. OpenTelemetry Collector benchmark analysis37:51 - OpenSearch 3.1 release40:47 - eBay’s observability talk47:00 - Kotlin SDK for OTel talk for Android developers51:45 - Otel Collector fine-tuning talk53:52 - Broadcom OTel use case from mobile to mainframe56:43 - Spotify migration from in-house TSDB to VictoriaMetrics and Prometheus58:20 - OTel Collector replacement in Rust with the Rotel project1:00:58 - Noisy neighbors network observability1:03:04 - rising awareness of OTel semantic conventions 1:05:50 - outro Resources:Open Observability Summit + OTel Community Day: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-observability-summit-otel-community-day/eBay innovation with open source observability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ycNhzRVSbU&list=PLj6h78yzYM2NFT2PGItX2idBf7v8fHcy7&index=35 More on eBay’s journey to planet-scale observability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UsU3nRglhA&list=PLd57eY2edRXz4djMETYTm-2p8WGTdoX3D Spotify talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87koDlpKDR4&list=PLj6h78yzYM2NFT2PGItX2idBf7v8fHcy7Kotlin SDK for OTel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di5nhYvUh6w&list=PLj6h78yzYM2NFT2PGItX2idBf7v8fHcy7More on mobile observability with OTel: https://medium.com/p/2eb847c41941 OpenTelemtry Collector vs. Fluent Bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZho5W9L_Z8&list=PLj6h78yzYM2NFT2PGItX2idBf7v8fHcy7&index=8Telemetry Pipelines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d1g5ZWAc1Y&list=PLj6h78yzYM2NFT2PGItX2idBf7v8fHcy7&index=30 OTel Collector in Rust with Rotel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeQnP8Ct7qY&list=PLj6h78yzYM2NFT2PGItX2idBf7v8fHcy7&index=16 Rotel project repo: https://github.com/streamfold/rotel Noisy neighbor detection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVqiOtXTEFA Socials:BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/openobservability.bsky.socialTwitter: https://twitter.com/OpenObservLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/openobservability/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalksDotan Horovits============Twitter: https://twitter.com/horovits LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/horovits/ BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/horovits.bsky.social Mastodon: https://fosstodon.org/@horovitsHenrik Rexed===========LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hrexed/BlueSky: @hrexed.bsky.socialYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@isitobservable Alok Bhide=========LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albhide/

8 snips
Jun 25, 2025 • 1h 4min
OpenSearch 3.0 Unveiled: Vector DB on Steroids and More - OpenObservability Talks S6E01
Carl Meadows, Chair of the OpenSearch Software Foundation, and Pallavi Priyadarshini, Project Release Manager, share insights on the groundbreaking OpenSearch 3.0. They discuss its leap in performance and vector database capabilities, particularly in semantic search. Key topics include OpenSearch’s new role under The Linux Foundation, community engagement initiatives, and innovative features like advanced anomaly detection and AI integration. Listeners will discover how OpenSearch continues to evolve, driven by collaboration and feedback.

23 snips
May 27, 2025 • 58min
ClickHouse: Breaking the Speed Limit for Observability and Analytics - OpenObservability Talks S5E12
In this captivating discussion, Robert Hodges, CEO of Altinity and a key contributor to ClickHouse, shares his extensive knowledge of database technology. He highlights how ClickHouse is revolutionizing the field with incredible speed and efficiency, outperforming legacy systems like MySQL. The conversation dives into the new Project Antalya, showcasing how it dramatically reduces storage costs and boosts query speeds. Robert also explores ClickHouse's adaptability in observability, integrating with tools like OpenTelemetry, and emphasizes the importance of community engagement in open-source projects.

Apr 28, 2025 • 1h 3min
CNCF Ambassadors Share the Best of KubeCon EU 2025 - OpenObservability Talks S5E11
KubeCon Europe 2025 in London has wrapped up, and we’re bringing you all the highlights, trends, and behind-the-scenes insights straight from the show floor!In this special recap episode, I’m joined by two CNCF Ambassadors and community powerhouses: Kasper Borg Nissen, the Co-Chair of this KubeCon as well as of the KubeCon 2024 editions, and a Developer Relations Engineer at Dash0; and William Rizzo, Consulting Architect at Mirantis and Linkerd Ambassador.Together, we unpack the major themes from the event—from platform engineering and internal developer platforms, to open source observability, and where Kubernetes is headed next. We also chat about the vibe of the community, emerging projects to watch, and important trends in European tech sphere.Whether you missed the conference or want to catch up on important updates you might have missed, this episode gives you a curated take straight from the experts who know the cloud-native space inside out.The episode was live-streamed on 22 April 2025 and the video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyxJOmOEBvQYou can read the recap post: https://medium.com/p/740258a5fa46OpenObservability Talks episodes are released monthly, on the last Thursday of each month and are available for listening on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube.We live-stream the episodes on Twitch and YouTube Live - tune in to see us live, and chime in with your comments and questions on the live chat.https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalks https://www.twitch.tv/openobservabilityShow Notes:00:00 - intro03:28 - KubeCon impressions09:59 - Backstage turns 518:56 - CNCF turns 10 and CNCF annual survey27:22 - Sovereign cloud in Europe and the NeoNephos initiative33:55 - CI/CD use in production increases36:52 - OpenInfra joins the Linux Foundation40:16 - Cloud native local communities, DEI and the BIPOC initiative 51:11 - Observability query standardization SIG updates59:36 - outroResources:CNCF 2024 Annual Survey https://www.cncf.io/reports/cncf-annual-survey-2024/NeoNephos initiative for sovereign EU cloud: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7313115943075766273/ OpenInfra Foundation and OpenStack join The Linux Foundation: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7307839934072066048/ Backstage turns 5: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7318163557206966272/ Kubernetes 1.33 release: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7321054742174924800/Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenObservYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalksDotan Horovits============Twitter: @horovitsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/horovitsMastodon: @horovits@fosstodonBlueSky: @horovits.bsky.socialKasper Borg Nissen===============Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/phennexLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaspernissen/BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/kaspernissen.xyzWilliam Rizzo===========Twitter: https://twitter.com/WilliamRizzo19LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-rizzo/BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/williamrizzo.bsky.social

Mar 27, 2025 • 1h 3min
Observability for Mobile with OpenTelemetry - OpenObservability Talks S5E10
Observability into mobile native applications presents unique challenges, from capturing real user interactions to dealing with network constraints and battery efficiency. In this episode of OpenObservability Talks, we explore the special characteristics of client-side telemetry, and how OpenTelemetry helps generate mobile client telemetry for real user monitoring (RUM), enabling deeper insights into performance and user experience. We host Hanson Ho, Android architect at Embrace and an approver on the OpenTelemetry Android SDK. Hanson brings a wealth of experience from Twitter, Salesforce and SAP. He will share his expertise on instrumenting mobile apps, the evolution of OpenTelemetry for Android, and best practices for collecting and analyzing mobile telemetry. Tune in to learn how to bring OpenTelemetry-powered observability to your mobile applications!The episode was live-streamed on 17 March 2025 and the video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIid85wO8gcOpenObservability Talks episodes are released monthly, on the last Thursday of each month and are available for listening on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube.We live-stream the episodes on Twitch and YouTube Live - tune in to see us live, and chime in with your comments and questions on the live chat.https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalks https://www.twitch.tv/openobservabilityShow Notes:00:00 - Intro01:42 - the unique characteristics of mobile env03:39 - Android presents additional challenges05:41 - observability in everyday frontend dev12:01 - observability for business metrics in mobile apps18:28 - collecting telemetry in constrained mobile devices23:03 - Twitter scale observability into mobile apps 29:01 - how mobile monitoring used to work before OpenTelemetry33:37 - OpenTelemetry expansion from server-side into client-side telemetry 44:09 - OpenTelemetry Android SDK working group50:53 - Embrace’s journey into OpenTelemetry1:00:04 - Outro Resources:OpenTelemetry Android SDK: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-androidOpenTelemetry Client SDK and Instrumentation SIG board: https://github.com/orgs/open-telemetry/projects/19/views/1 Adding client-side support to OpenTelemetry: https://medium.com/p/a389144f3812#2fcf Socials:Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenObservYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalksDotan Horovits============Twitter: @horovitsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/horovitsMastodon: @horovits@fosstodonBlueSky: @horovits.bsky.socialHanson Ho==========LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanson-ho/BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bidetofevil.wtf

Feb 27, 2025 • 1h
Shopify’s Journey to Planet-Scale Observability - OpenObservability Talks S5E09
Elijah McPherson, an engineering leader at Shopify with expertise in observability, discusses the company's ambitious journey to create an in-house observability stack called Observe. He dives into the challenges of vendor lock-in and the strategic pivot to open-source solutions. Elijah emphasizes the critical role of developer experience and user feedback in building tools that meet engineers' needs. The conversation highlights innovative features like the Investigate API and the importance of integrating business metrics for enhanced performance insights.

Jan 30, 2025 • 1h 1min
Open Source AI: Perspectives from the OSI - OpenObservability Talks S5E08
Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director of the Open Source Initiative, leads discussions on the emerging landscape of open source AI. He explains the newly drafted Open Source AI Definition and its community-driven origins. The conversation tackles the challenges of defining openness in AI, especially as corporate interests evolve. Stefano also sheds light on the tension between open source principles and regulatory frameworks, like the EU's AI Act, stressing the need for ethical guidelines and inclusive standards in this rapidly changing arena.

6 snips
Dec 22, 2024 • 1h 2min
End-of-Year Observability Retrospective with Charity Majors - OpenObservability Talks S5E07
Charity Majors, co-founder and CTO of Honeycomb, is a trailblazer in the observability realm. In this engaging discussion, she reflects on pivotal trends shaping observability this year and the transformative role of OpenTelemetry. The challenges and opportunities of integrating AI in observability are examined, debunking misconceptions along the way. Charity also highlights the evolution towards open-source solutions, and offers insight on managing observability costs in high-traffic environments. Looking ahead, she shares what to expect in 2025.