Tech Leaderism

Observability vs Monitoring

There's a lot of talk about observability these days, and it's easy to confuse it with monitoring. But the difference really matters - especially as systems get more complex.

Monitoring is about tracking known things. You define metrics and thresholds, set up alerts, and wait to be told when something breaks. It's reactive. You already know the kinds of problems you're looking for, and you build tools to catch them.

Observability, on the other hand, is about answering questions you didn't know you'd need to ask. It's about understanding how your systems behave, diagnosing the unexpected, and making smarter decisions based on real data - not assumptions. It's a proactive and exploratory approach to understand the internal state of a system by examining its external outputs.

In practice, observability is about putting the right structures in place to see and understand what your systems are doing - all the time, not just when things go wrong. You start by identifying which metrics actually matter for your business and your users - like response times, error rates, or system throughput. Then, you instrument your code to capture useful logs, traces, and metrics. Tools like OpenTelemetry can help make that process more consistent.

From there, you build dashboards that highlight what's important and set alerts that trigger on real issues, not noise. Popular tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and the ELK stack make this possible, and platforms like Datadog or New Relic can bring everything into one place.

But tools alone aren't enough. Observability has to be part of how the team works. That means using data in retros, reviewing patterns after incidents, and making decisions based on what's actually happening in your systems - not just what you hope is happening.

When observability is done right, your team detects and solves problems faster, your systems run more reliably, and decisions get made with more confidence. You spend less time guessing and more time improving. And instead of reacting to issues, you start anticipating them - and building better systems because of it.

Observability isn't about collecting more data or spinning up endless dashboards. It's about clarity. It's about helping your team ask better questions, spot issues early, and stay aligned with what really matters - both technically and to the business.