The distinction

  • The terms are often used interchangeably, but they differ 1:46:
    • Monitoring — tracking metrics you defined in advance 1:46
    • Observability — collecting all the data so you can answer questions about the app, including ones you didn't anticipate 1:46
  • Framing: monitoring is part of observability; observability gives the full picture 2:01

The three-step production observability workflow

Production observability breaks down into three steps 2:01:

  1. Tracing — capture data for every user interaction
  2. Online evaluations — score the captured traces for quality
  3. Alerting — get notified when something drifts
flowchart LR
    T[1. Tracing] --> E[2. Online evaluations] --> A[3. Alerting]