OpenTelemetry is an open-source collection of tools, APIs, SDKs, and specifications that standardize how telemetry data is modeled and collected. It was formed from the merger of OpenCensus and OpenTracing projects and has backing from major tech companies such as Microsoft, Red Hat, Google, Amazon, Shopify, Datadog, and Facebook. The tool helps solve problems related to observability in cloud-native and microservice architectures by providing a standardized way to collect metrics, logs, and traces, making it easier for developers to debug and resolve issues, identify bottlenecks, and improve security. OpenTelemetry provides real value to applications by decoupling collection from storage, streamlining implementation, and offering a robust ecosystem and community. Its use cases include software monitoring, optimization, security, and developer productivity, while its data is stored in time series databases or other specialized databases to optimize scalability, query performance, and cost savings. By analyzing and acting on observability data, developers can automate deployment pipelines, make informed decisions, and improve overall software development and deployment processes.