Building an Effective Observability Strategy First Call Deck.pdf

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Building an
effective
observability
strategy
Ania Develter (she/her)
Sr. Specialist SA
AWS

Agenda
Observability maturity
model
Value of observability
Observing what matters
Collecting signals
Extracting data & demo
Designing alerts and
dashboards
Selecting the right tools
& demo

AWS observability maturity model
Capability
Maturity
Stage 1: Foundational
monitoring
Stage 2: Intermediate
monitoring
Stage 3: Advanced
observability
Stage 4: Proactive
observability
C O L L E C T I N G T E L E M E T R Y
D A T A
T E L E M E T R Y A N A L Y S I S
A N D I N S I G H T S
C O R R E L A T I O N A N D
A N O M A L Y D E T E C T I O N
A U T O M A T I C A N D
P R O A C T I V E R O O T C A U S E
I D E N T I F I C A T I O N

Stage 1: Foundational
monitoring
C O L L E C T I N G T E L E M E T R Y D A T A
Current state:
• Disparate monitoring solutions
• Siloed tools
Plan of action:
• Establish an understanding of current state
• Set realistic goals for improvement

Stage 2: Intermediate
monitoring
T E L E M E T R Y A N A L Y S I S A N D I N S I G H T S
Current state:
• Well-defined process for collecting signals
• Spend a lot of time debugging issues
Plan of action:
• Deploy policies and practices
• Define actionable KPIs

Stage 3: Advanced
observability
C O R R E L A T I O N A N D A N O M A L Y D E T E C T I O N
Current state:
• Org-wide strategy
• End-to-end observability
Plan of action:
• Integrate with other critical systems
• Automate operations using AI/ML tools

Stage 4: Proactive
observability
A U T O M A T I C A N D P R O A C T I V E R O O T
C A U S E I D E N T I F I C A T I O N
Current state:
• Well-trained AI/ML models for
identification of root cause
• Proactive remediation
Plan of action:
• Continuous improvement

Reactive
monitoring
Blissful
ignorance
Confusion
False hope
Stress
Desperation
Enlightenment

But it’s more than . . .
• Resolving incidents
It’s also:
• Understanding impact
• Data-driven decisions
• Happy customers!!!

Demo

Customer requirements
Location Price Security Page speed Search
Choice

1. Observe what matters
Define what matters to your:
• Customers
• Business
• Internal stakeholders
• Project

2. Measure your objectives
• Success metrics
(KPIs/SLAs/SLOs/other)
• Know what good looks like

3. Identify sources
• Is the data available?
• Extract data
• Plan ahead
Logs
Metrics
Traces

4. Alerting strategy
Define criteria (warning/critical)
Define actions
Avoid alert fatigue
Review after incidents

5. Dashboard strategy
Stakeholder dashboards
Cost, service audit, capacity planning
Low-level dashboards
Infrastructure, microservice, dependency
Backend
microservice
AWS Lambda
functions
Infrastructure
dashboard
Infrastructure
dashboard
Dependency
dashboard
Microservice
dashboard
High-level dashboards
Customer experience, system level,
service instance
Service
audit
dashboard
Customer
experience
dashboard
Clients
API
microservice
Amazon EC2
instances
System
dashboard
Additional requirements

6. Tool selection
• Right tool for the job
• Pick features you need
• Consolidate & standardize
• Define exception process

7. Bring it all together
• Document
• Build into internal processes
• Operational readiness
• Implement but don’t “boil the
ocean”

8. Iterate
• Know your baselines
• Review routinely
• Review after incidents
Customer
experience
Collect
Improve Act
Business
stakeholders
Customer
needs
KPIs

Summary
Observe what
matters
 To your customers, business,
project/business unit
 Work with business
stakeholders
Measure your
objectives
 Know your success criteria
(business KPIs, SLAs, SLOs)
 Know what good looks like
Identify
sources
 Collect the right signals to
measure business objectives
Establish where
you are
 Review observability
maturity model
WRAPPING UP

Summary
W R A P P I N G U P
Define process  Document
 Don’t boil the ocean
Alerting
strategy
 Alert (only) when business
outcomes are at risk
 Avoid alert fatigue
Dashboarding
strategy
 Build dashboards for
operational visibility
Tool selection  Right tool for the job
 Features you need
 Consolidate & standardize
Iterate  Review after incidents
 Keep focus on customers

Thank you!
Ania Develter
linkedin.com/in/ania
-develter

Building an Effective Observability Strategy First Call Deck.pdf

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