As organizations transition to cloud-based development, monitoring their computing environments becomes more complex, prompting consideration of building custom monitoring solutions using open source tools. Open source monitoring provides flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, as it avoids licensing fees and enables shared security and support costs. Building an in-house solution involves careful planning and resource allocation across the web, application, and database tiers, with considerations for storage, buffering, and data retention. While tools like Grafana can ease the development of custom dashboards, adopting a DevOps methodology and integrating event-driven architecture can improve scalability and efficiency. However, the notion of "free" in open source isn't synonymous with "zero cost," as it entails ongoing maintenance and potential additional expenses. Organizations must weigh the benefits against the challenges of technical debt and resource allocation when deciding on a custom solution versus managed services.