Tracing has always been a key use case for time series data. But admittedly, it’s also one that past versions of InfluxDB could not handle as well as we wanted. One of the roadblocks was the cardinality issue. Tracing data is, almost by definition, high cardinality data and prior to InfluxDB IOx, high cardinality data could affect query performance.

The much-anticipated release of Grafana Tempo 2.0, which we previewed at ObservabilityCON 2022, will represent a huge step forward for the distributed tracing backend. Among the biggest highlights will be TraceQL, a first-of-its-kind query language that makes it easier than ever to find the exact trace you’re looking for. There’s supposed to be a video here, but for some reason there isn’t. Either we entered the id wrong (oops!), or Vimeo is down.

After a period of beta testing, we're happy to announce the launch of our latest AppSignal for Node.js package. This package features six new integrations and uses the OpenTelemetry framework for reliable telemetry data collection. OpenTelemetry is an open standard that facilitates the instrumentation of standardized telemetry data collection. AppSignal is committed to using OpenTelemetry in new integrations, and our Node.js integration is the first to use the standard.

There is significant momentum around observability, as detailed in VMware’s 2022 State of Observability report, with almost all respondents stating that observability would benefit their organization. This is further validated by Gartner including observability in their Magic Quadrant for Application Performance Monitoring and Observability report for the first time this year.

AppSignal is a strong supporter of open-source technology. We owe so much of our modern world to the unseen, hard-working software developers who build and maintain the many technologies that make everything from reading this article to sending a message from your phone possible. That's why we're investing in OpenTelemetry, the open-source standard for telemetry data collection, rather than developing our own independent standard.

Here's how to configure the OpenTelemetry Community Demo application to send telemetry data to AppDynamics Cloud.

The drive for faster, more scalable services is on the rise. Our day-to-day lives depend on apps, from a food delivery app to have your favorite meal delivered, to your banking app to manage your accounts, to even apps to schedule doctor’s appointments. These apps need to be able to grow from not only a features standpoint but also in terms of user capacity. The scale and need for global reach drives increasing complexity for these high-demand cloud applications.

Redundant logs are a common nuisance in observability pipelines of all kinds. In large environments, excess logs can multiply data costs to unsustainable amounts. Log sampling is the process of randomly sampling logs to produce the same valuable insight with dramatically reduced data flow. Configuring agents in a pipeline to appropriately sample logs can be a pain. Pipeline managers, like BindPlane OP, make that process simple and scalable.

Today the Grafana Agent team is excited to announce the release of Grafana Agent v0.29.0. This September, we introduced a new way to easily run and configure Grafana Agent called Grafana Agent Flow, our new dynamic configuration runtime built on components. Within Flow, we are also embracing Grafana Labs’ big tent philosophy by introducing OpenTelemetry (OTel) Collector components and converters for traces, metrics, and logs in Agent v0.29.0.

When teams collect data without full observability of what others on the team can see, it becomes clear that no one’s picture is truly accurate. In this picture, all of the people are wearing blindfolds and feeling around to see what is in front of them. One thinks this creature is a spear, another thinks it is a tree trunk, and another a rope. As long as they cannot observe what the others can, there is poor data fidelity.