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The OpenTelemetry Getting Started Survey: Understanding Users' Observability Journeys

Ana Margarita Medina
Senior Staff Developer
ServiceNow

Organizations can face significant challenges, ranging from skill development to user adoption, when implementing new technologies. This is particularly evident in the realm of observability, an increasingly critical area for organizations striving to maintain optimal performance and reliability across digital applications. Recently, the OpenTelemetry End-User SIG surveyed more than 100 OpenTelemetry users to learn more about their observability journeys and what resources deliver the most value when establishing an observability practice.

Most respondents have initiated their observability journey, whether they are in the process of standing up an observability practice or are already well-established. Regardless of experience level, there's a clear need for more support and continued education, especially in helping those who are just starting with observability technologies. When asked what resources they wish they had when getting started with OpenTelemetry, more than half (67%) said they wanted comprehensive documentation, quickly followed by reference implementations for instrumentation (65%), and more detailed tutorials (63%).



When getting started with observability, most respondents are working with containerization technologies, with about 80% using Kubernetes and 63% using Docker.


While quite a few languages are used across organizations, more than 50% of respondents utilize JavaScript, Java, Go, and Python.


The majority of respondents stated that Traces Specification, Instrumentation APIs and SDKs, and Metrics Specification are the most important aspects of their OpenTelemetry journeys.


Observability will continue to be a cornerstone for organizations to not only measure and understand application performance, but to also build resilience into technology stacks. It's imperative for leaders to empower their teams with the necessary tools and knowledge, as they play a pivotal role in the successful adoption and implementation of observability practices. By equipping teams with the proper resources, organizations can overcome the common challenges associated with implementing new technologies, ensuring a smoother transition and maximizing the full potential of their observability initiatives.

Ana Margarita Medina is a Senior Staff Developer at ServiceNow

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The OpenTelemetry Getting Started Survey: Understanding Users' Observability Journeys

Ana Margarita Medina
Senior Staff Developer
ServiceNow

Organizations can face significant challenges, ranging from skill development to user adoption, when implementing new technologies. This is particularly evident in the realm of observability, an increasingly critical area for organizations striving to maintain optimal performance and reliability across digital applications. Recently, the OpenTelemetry End-User SIG surveyed more than 100 OpenTelemetry users to learn more about their observability journeys and what resources deliver the most value when establishing an observability practice.

Most respondents have initiated their observability journey, whether they are in the process of standing up an observability practice or are already well-established. Regardless of experience level, there's a clear need for more support and continued education, especially in helping those who are just starting with observability technologies. When asked what resources they wish they had when getting started with OpenTelemetry, more than half (67%) said they wanted comprehensive documentation, quickly followed by reference implementations for instrumentation (65%), and more detailed tutorials (63%).



When getting started with observability, most respondents are working with containerization technologies, with about 80% using Kubernetes and 63% using Docker.


While quite a few languages are used across organizations, more than 50% of respondents utilize JavaScript, Java, Go, and Python.


The majority of respondents stated that Traces Specification, Instrumentation APIs and SDKs, and Metrics Specification are the most important aspects of their OpenTelemetry journeys.


Observability will continue to be a cornerstone for organizations to not only measure and understand application performance, but to also build resilience into technology stacks. It's imperative for leaders to empower their teams with the necessary tools and knowledge, as they play a pivotal role in the successful adoption and implementation of observability practices. By equipping teams with the proper resources, organizations can overcome the common challenges associated with implementing new technologies, ensuring a smoother transition and maximizing the full potential of their observability initiatives.

Ana Margarita Medina is a Senior Staff Developer at ServiceNow

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AI is the catalyst for significant investment in data teams as enterprises require higher-quality data to power their AI applications, according to the State of Analytics Engineering Report from dbt Labs ...

Misaligned architecture can lead to business consequences, with 93% of respondents reporting negative outcomes such as service disruptions, high operational costs and security challenges ...

A Gartner analyst recently suggested that GenAI tools could create 25% time savings for network operational teams. Where might these time savings come from? How are GenAI tools helping NetOps teams today, and what other tasks might they take on in the future as models continue improving? In general, these savings come from automating or streamlining manual NetOps tasks ...

IT and line-of-business teams are increasingly aligned in their efforts to close the data gap and drive greater collaboration to alleviate IT bottlenecks and offload growing demands on IT teams, according to The 2025 Automation Benchmark Report: Insights from IT Leaders on Enterprise Automation & the Future of AI-Driven Businesses from Jitterbit ...

A large majority (86%) of data management and AI decision makers cite protecting data privacy as a top concern, with 76% of respondents citing ROI on data privacy and AI initiatives across their organization, according to a new Harris Poll from Collibra ...

According to Gartner, Inc. the following six trends will shape the future of cloud over the next four years, ultimately resulting in new ways of working that are digital in nature and transformative in impact ...

2020 was the equivalent of a wedding with a top-shelf open bar. As businesses scrambled to adjust to remote work, digital transformation accelerated at breakneck speed. New software categories emerged overnight. Tech stacks ballooned with all sorts of SaaS apps solving ALL the problems — often with little oversight or long-term integration planning, and yes frequently a lot of duplicated functionality ... But now the music's faded. The lights are on. Everyone from the CIO to the CFO is checking the bill. Welcome to the Great SaaS Hangover ...

Regardless of OpenShift being a scalable and flexible software, it can be a pain to monitor since complete visibility into the underlying operations is not guaranteed ... To effectively monitor an OpenShift environment, IT administrators should focus on these five key elements and their associated metrics ...

An overwhelming majority of IT leaders (95%) believe the upcoming wave of AI-powered digital transformation is set to be the most impactful and intensive seen thus far, according to The Science of Productivity: AI, Adoption, And Employee Experience, a new report from Nexthink ...

Overall outage frequency and the general level of reported severity continue to decline, according to the Outage Analysis 2025 from Uptime Institute. However, cyber security incidents are on the rise and often have severe, lasting impacts ...