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