Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - Observability best practices for hybrid environments (BIZ211)

Summary

• Chris Krakow, director of observability technical interlock for Splunk, discusses observability best practices in hybrid environments.
• Hybrid environments can include on-prem and cloud setups, workload migrations, and geographic availability across multiple AWS regions or accounts.
• Observability is proactive and differs from monitoring, which is reactive.
• OpenTelemetry (OTel) is recommended for standardized data collection across environments.
• Data tiering is crucial for managing data effectively and cost-efficiently.
• Splunk's observability cloud offers tools for real-time service mapping, code profiling, and user experience monitoring.
• Context propagation, standardized tagging, and alerting are key for effective observability.
• Splunk's new features include federated search for Amazon S3 and a free trial of their observability suite.
• Chris Krakow invites attendees to visit the Splunk booth for further discussion and to try out their observability tools.

Insights

• The emphasis on OpenTelemetry (OTel) highlights the industry's move towards open standards and interoperability in observability tools.
• The distinction between observability and monitoring is critical for organizations to understand as they aim to be more proactive in their IT operations.
• Data tiering and the use of attributes and tags are repeatedly stressed, indicating their importance in managing complex hybrid environments.
• The presentation suggests a growing trend of integrating observability practices with business outcomes, customer experiences, and compliance requirements.
• Splunk's focus on real-time data and the ability to search data outside of traditional indexing points to a shift towards more flexible and cost-effective data management strategies.
• The mention of federated search for Amazon S3 indicates a closer integration of Splunk's tools with AWS services, which could be beneficial for AWS users looking for observability solutions.
• The offer of a free trial and the invitation to discuss at the Splunk booth suggest a push for greater adoption of Splunk's observability tools among AWS re:Invent attendees.