
OpenObservability Talks
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
Latest episodes

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.

Nov 25, 2024 • 60min
CNCF Ambassadors Share the Best of KubeCon 2024 - OpenObservability Talks S5E06
Catch up on everything you missed at KubeCon North America 2024! Join us for a special recap that brings you closer to the action. This is a special episode in collaboration with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), the foundation behind KubeCon+CloudNativeCon and the cloud-native projects.
Dotan Horovits, our host and a CNCF Ambassador, will be joined by an all-star panel of cloud-native experts—CNCF Ambassadors Viktor Farcic and Max Körbächer—each bringing their unique insights and takeaways from the conference.
Together, they unpack the major project announcements and key themes from this year’s event: the standout talks, co-located events, maintainer meetings and those memorable hallway conversations. Get insights from the experts who know the cloud-native space inside out.
Viktor Farcic is a lead rapscallion at Upbound and a published author. He is a host of the YouTube channel DevOps Toolkit and a co-host of DevOps Paradox.
Max is Co-Founder at Liquid Reply. He is Co-Chair of the CNCF Environmental Sustainability Technical Advisory Group and served 3 years at the Kubernetes release team. He runs the Munich Kubernetes Meetup as well as the Munich and Ukraine Kubernetes Community Days.
Dotan Horovits is a DevOps specialist with special focus on observability solutions and related open source projects such as OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, Prometheus and OpenSearch. He runs the OpenObservability Talks podcast, now in its 5th year.
Don't miss this expert-led KubeCon recap, in collaboration with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s official channel!
The episode was live-streamed on 19 November 2024 in collaboration with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, and the video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TrPev5IzB8
You can read the recap post: https://medium.com/@horovits/1362959030c1
OpenObservability 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/openobservability
Show Notes:
00:00 - episode and speaker intro
02:45 - KubeCon Salt Lake City stats and trends
05:26 - The cloud-native stack is maturing up
08:12 - KubeCon’s role in the cloud-native space
11:23 - Platform Engineering trend
14:07 - Open specifications and Kubernetes API
18:44 - Flatcar joins the CNCF with container focused OS
24:54 - wasmCloud moves to CNCF incubation and WASMCon highlights
31:49 - CNCF Ambassador program and recent Community Awards
35:24 - KubeCon event plan and expansion, and local KCDs
43:34 - Environmental Sustainability TAG
47:46 - Dapr and cert-manager reached CNCF graduation
51:11 - Cloud Native Reference Architectures
54:39 - observability updates for Jaeger, Prometheus and more
58:53 - episode outro
Resources:
CNCF community awards: https://www.cncf.io/announcements/2024/11/14/cloud-native-computing-foundation-announces-the-2024-community-awards-winners/
Dapr graduation: https://www.cncf.io/announcements/2024/11/12/cloud-native-computing-foundation-announces-dapr-graduation/
wasmCloud moves to incubation: https://www.cncf.io/blog/2024/11/12/cncf-welcomes-wasmcloud-to-the-cncf-incubator/
More on wasmCloud: https://medium.com/p/02a5025c6115
OpenTelemetry expands into CI/CD observability https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7259200802689273856
Jaeger v2 unveiled https://medium.com/p/be612dbee774
Prometheus 3.0 unveiled https://medium.com/p/1c5edca32c87
Flatcar joins the CNCF https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7257278073824288768/
OpenCost matured into incubation https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7257826394179522562
New Cloud Native Reference Architecture hub: https://architecture.cncf.io/
CNCF upcoming events: https://www.cncf.io/events/
Kubernetes Community Days events around the world https://www.cncf.io/kcds/
Socials:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenObserv
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalks
Dotan Horovits
============
Twitter: @horovits
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/horovits
Mastodon: @horovits@fosstodon
BlueSky: @horovits.bsky.social
Viktor Farcic
===========
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vfarcic
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktorfarcic
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/vfarcic.bsky.social
Max Körbächer
=============
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mkoerbi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxkoerbaecher
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mkoerbi.bsky.social
Mastodon: https://fosstodon.org/@mkorbi@mastodon.social

Oct 28, 2024 • 1h 3min
Jaeger V2 Unveiled: Powered by OpenTelemetry - OpenObservability Talks S5E05
Yuri Shkuro, observability engineer at Meta and creator of Jaeger, dives into the groundbreaking Jaeger V2 release, emphasizing its deep integration with OpenTelemetry. He discusses the architectural advancements and enhanced user interface, making tracing more efficient. Yuri highlights future UI enhancements and community mentorship's role in Jaeger's growth. Additionally, he touches on the complexities of observability in machine learning, showcasing how OpenTelemetry addresses these challenges.

Sep 12, 2024 • 1h 6min
Prometheus 3.0 Unveiled: PromCon Highlights with Julius Volz - OpenObservability Talks S5E04
PromCon, the flagship yearly event of the Prometheus community, is back in Berlin, and we’re here to bring you the highlights from the Prometheus ecosystem. And this year we’ve got some major news: Prometheus’s long-awaited major release, v3.0!
Join us to hear all about the revamped user interface, about Remote Write 2.0, and about Prometheus’ goal to become the default backend for storing OpenTelemetry metrics, featuring native OTel support, and much more. We’ll cover these and more highlights from the Prometheus ecosystem.
Our guest is no other than Julius Volz, creator of Prometheus, and founder of the PromCon conference. Julius created the Prometheus monitoring at SoundCloud and led the project through open source and beyond. He now focuses on growing the Prometheus community, and helps companies use and adapt Prometheus through his company PromLabs. Before that, Julius was a Site Reliability Engineer at Google, where he gained experience monitoring at hyperscale.
The episode was live-streamed on 4 September 2024 and the video is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPUCU-78RD4
Check out the episode recap: https://medium.com/p/1c5edca32c87/
OpenObservability 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/openobservability
Show Notes:
00:00 - episode and guest intro
01:56 - Prometheus origins
07:23 - Kubernetes synergy
09:34 - Origins of PromCon and this year’s event
11:44 - The idea for Prometheus 3.0
13:26 - new UI for Prometheus
20:42 - Beyond Prometheus UI into the broader UI/UX vision
23:07 - OpenTelemetry support and compatibility
37:26 - Native histograms
43:14 - Remote Write 2.0
46:53 - New governance model
48:49 - OpenMetrics is archived, merged into Prometheus
53:34 - Perses joins the CNCF sandbox
57:15 - The landscape of long-term storage for Prometheus
59:13 - Updates in Thanos project
01:00:34 - the growth of Prometheus-semi-compatible solutions
01:04:09 - Kubernets 1.31 is released
Resources:
PromCon recap: https://medium.com/p/1c5edca32c87/
PromCon: https://promcon.io/2024-berlin/
Prometheus now supports OpenTelemetry: https://horovits.medium.com/83f85878e46a
OpenMetrics archived, merged into Prometheus: https://horovits.medium.com/d555598d2d04
Prometheus 3.0-Beta release: https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/tag/v3.0.0-beta.0
Prometheus 3.0-Beta release blog: https://prometheus.io/blog/2024/09/11/prometheus-3-beta/
Perses project introduction: https://horovits.medium.com/f05b5324d7da
Last roundup of Prometheus updates: https://horovits.medium.com/fbede9b5cc9
Last PromCon (2023) recap:
https://logz.io/blog/promcon-prometheus-ecosystem-updates/
Socials:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenObserv
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@openobservabilitytalks
Dotan Horovits
============
Twitter: @horovits
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/horovits
Mastodon: @horovits@fosstodon
Julius Volz
=========
Twitter: https://twitter.com/juliusvolz
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julius-volz/
Mastodon: https://chaos.social/@juliusvolz

Aug 28, 2024 • 1h 4min
What’s New with OpenShift and the Observability Frontier - OpenObservability Talks S5E03
In this lively discussion, Radek Vokál, a Senior Manager at Red Hat with 20 years of experience, shares his insights into OpenShift's evolution and its vibrant community. He covers the integration of observability within OpenShift, highlighting strategies for effective monitoring and troubleshooting. Radek discusses the balance between community demands and commercial goals in open source, while also addressing critical cloud security issues. Exciting advancements like Jaeger version two and the role of collaborative development in observability are central themes.

Jul 25, 2024 • 1h 2min
WebAssembly: The Next Frontier in Cloud-Native Evolution - OpenObservability Talks S5E02
Discover the transformative power of WebAssembly in cloud-native applications, with insights on performance, portability, and security. Explore the evolution of containers and Kubernetes, benefits of WebAssembly's flexibility, and its practical use cases in platform engineering and IoT devices. Learn about advancements in observability with OpenTelemetry support, community contributions in maintaining Wasm Cloud, and the project roadmap for future developments.

Jun 27, 2024 • 1h
Redis is No Longer Open Source. Is Valkey the Successor? - OpenObservability Talks S5E01
Redis was relicensed, leading to Valkey fork under Linux Foundation. Valkey gained momentum with major industry support. Kyle Davis, Senior Dev Advocate at AWS, discussed Valkey's foundation and community building. Valkey's compatibility, roadmap, and Contributor Summit were highlighted. Valkey aims to maintain Redis compatibility and support the open-source community.
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