API World + CloudX + Dev Innovation Summit 2024

Greg Leffler, Splunk, Director of Developer Evangelism - Observability

As organizations have moved to the cloud and increased their pace of innovation to ship software more often, it becomes harder to validate the impact of changes – both to their business and to their customers’ experience. That’s where Observability comes into play. Observability has emerged as a critical aspect of cloud native applications due to its ability to provide comprehensive insights into the complex and dynamic environments these applications operate within. By enabling real-time monitoring, tracing, and logging, observability allows users to proactively identify and resolve performance issues, improve reliability and build better digital experiences. This is crucial in helping organizations lower the cost of unplanned downtime and be more resilient.

Downtime not only results in direct financial losses, often quantified in thousands of dollars per minute for large enterprises, but also incurs indirect costs such as reduced customer satisfaction, loss of trust, and potential long-term reputational damage. To illustrate these benefits, we will demonstrate a troubleshooting scenario in a microservice environment using an advanced observability tool, showcasing how timely insights can present and resolve issues efficiently. As a result, investing in robust observability tools and practices is essential for maintaining the reliability and efficiency of cloud native applications, ultimately supporting business continuity and growth.