Summary
This research note discusses pragmatic choices when adding observability to microservices: metrics, traces, and logging trade-offs.
Recommendations
- Instrument business-critical paths
- Use sampling for high-volume traces
- Correlate logs with trace IDs
Notes
A few quick, practical reminders:
- Focus first on the most critical user journeys — instrument them end-to-end so you can answer "did the user succeed?" quickly.
- Start with lightweight metrics and alerts; add traces selectively where latency or errors need deeper inspection.
- Keep an eye on cost and data volume; use sampling and retention policies to control storage and processing costs.
(Updated to reflect review on 2026-04-01.)
