Instrumenting AWS Lambda functions with OpenTelemetry SDKs

The blog post delves into the use of OpenTelemetry for instrumenting and monitoring serverless applications on AWS Lambda, focusing on the OpenTelemetry SDK and its role in simplifying the configuration of Lambda functions. OpenTelemetry provides a unified framework for collecting observability data, including metrics, traces, and logs, which is crucial for understanding serverless applications that are ephemeral and event-driven. The post explains how OpenTelemetry supports multiple platforms and offers a vendor-neutral API and SDK for application instrumentation, along with a range of exporters for data integration with various backends like New Relic. The post provides a step-by-step guide for setting up automatic instrumentation of AWS Lambda functions using OpenTelemetry libraries and SDKs for Node.js, detailing the installation of necessary packages, SDK configuration, and environment setup. The author highlights the benefits of exporting data to New Relic, which enhances observability through service map visualizations, transactions, and alerting. The post is authored by Zameer Fouzan, who shares insights on leveraging OpenTelemetry for better serverless application performance and observability.