Maintaining cloud production environments requires meticulous monitoring and data collection to prevent and manage service outages effectively, utilizing logs, metrics, or a combination of both. Metrics, which measure component functionality, help DevOps teams assess service value and monitor application performance, while logs provide detailed records of specific events, aiding in incident investigation and root-cause analysis. Though both methods are essential for different aspects of cloud application monitoring, they present challenges in data management and can lead to inefficiencies if improperly implemented. Tracing, a more granular form of monitoring, can be valuable but may overwhelm with data if not carefully managed. Successful integration of these methodologies involves using specialized tools that can extract and analyze significant data, such as the ELK Stack, to streamline the process and enhance application maintenance.