Observability: Logging, Metrics, and Tracing in Distributed Systems
Observability in distributed systems combines event logging, aggregated metrics, and request tracing—each offering distinct trade‑offs in detail, storage, and overhead—and while the ELK stack dominates log and metric handling, tracing solutions such as EagleEye and SkyWalking differ by protocol and language, prompting many teams to adopt unified, cloud‑native platforms like Alibaba Cloud’s Log Service for lower cost, real‑time analysis and simplified management.