The Rise of Open Standards in Observability: Highlights from KubeCon

Open standards and open specifications are increasingly vital in the fragmented and polyglot landscape of modern IT systems, driving compatibility, collaboration, and convergence within the observability domain. Significant updates from KubeCon highlight efforts to standardize various protocols and systems, such as the formation of a new working group for an Observability Query Language Standard by eBay and Netflix, and the formalization of the Prometheus Remote-Write Protocol as an IETF open standard to enhance interoperability. Additionally, the transition from OpenCensus to OpenTelemetry, which now offers feature parity across multiple languages, and the merger of the Elastic Common Schema with OpenTelemetry, reflect a move towards unified frameworks that simplify workflows and enhance compatibility. These endeavors, along with the stabilization of the OpenTelemetry Protocol and Logs, underscore a shift towards open-source-based specifications that foster innovation and community collaboration, ultimately enriching the observability ecosystem for practitioners and developers.