Observability has become crucial for effective application and system performance monitoring, focusing on understanding a system's internal state through real-time data analysis, thus enabling proactive optimization and management. Unlike traditional monitoring that only signals problems, observability helps identify their root causes by utilizing logs, metrics, and traces. This approach is especially beneficial at the API gateway layer, which serves as a central traffic management point across distributed services, offering insights into request patterns, response times, and error rates. Implementing observability at the API gateway layer aids in mapping service dependencies and provides essential business metrics. The blog post discusses the integration of Kong Konnect with Dynatrace using the OpenTelemetry (OTel) framework to enhance observability. OpenTelemetry, an open-source framework, facilitates the collection and export of telemetry data like traces, metrics, and logs. The OTel Collector, a key component, processes and exports telemetry data efficiently. Kong Konnect's deployment with Dynatrace is illustrated through a simple e-commerce application, demonstrating the integration's ability to manage and monitor microservices effectively. The post also details the process of setting up Kong Objects, configuring plugins, and employing both code-based and zero-code instrumentation to achieve comprehensive observability, ultimately enhancing system performance, security, and user experience.