Metrics, Logs and Traces: More Similar Than They Appear?

InfluxDB is working to consolidate metrics, traces and log data into a single solution due to their unique characteristics and differing query patterns. Time series data has distinct features that set it apart from other types of data, with metrics, traces and logs requiring different workloads and data structures. Logs pose the greatest challenge in terms of data model design, parsing, querying and performance, mainly due to their high cardinality and variable attribute naming conventions. In contrast, traces tend to have more structured output and consistent tag keys, while metrics exhibit both bounded and unbounded tag values. Efforts are underway to develop a unified solution that can handle all three types of time series data, with InfluxDB IOx aiming to manage high-cardinality tracing data alongside metric and raw event data in a single database core.