Original: Observability wide events 101 | Boris Tane

Observability Wide Events 101

Wide events are a very simple concept: for each request, every service sends a single event or log with rich context.

The author uses the example of a blog platform where traditional metrics and logs are insufficient to pinpoint issues when problems occur. With wide events, we can dig deeper to find exactly where the problem lies, and even identify which commit caused it.

Metrics and logs can solve known unknowns—solutions for common issues can be implemented during project development. But they are helpless when facing problems never seen before. This is because the context provided by these two types of telemetry signals is insufficient to answer unknown unknowns.