What Data Observability Is, What It’s Not, and Why it Matters

Data observability is the degree of visibility into your data at any point in time. It involves collecting metadata about the properties and relationships between data, monitoring changes, and presenting actionable insights. Key aspects include the number of closed-ended questions a data team can answer, insight into the data itself rather than just the data system, and historical baselines for comparison. Data observability differs from data quality, data monitoring, and data testing in various ways, such as its focus on solving multiple problems and providing coverage across the entire data stack. It is important because it helps data teams provide high-quality data that businesses need to make better decisions and take effective actions.