OpenTelemetry for Node.js: free intro course
Blog post from New Relic
Observability, particularly through OpenTelemetry, is crucial for maintaining modern applications' uptime and performance, especially as systems grow more complex. Initially unfamiliar with its importance due to a frontend background, the author learned about OpenTelemetry, a tool for app and website monitoring, and collaborated with freeCodeCamp.org to create a beginner-friendly video course. This course covers microservices, tracing, and observability. The article guides readers through using OpenTelemetry to instrument a Node.js application, explaining the setup process with tools like Zipkin for distributed tracing, which helps visualize and analyze request paths through applications. It emphasizes the importance of visibility into system operations to identify performance bottlenecks and improve reliability, and discusses exporting telemetry data to platforms like New Relic for further analysis. The author encourages developers to explore OpenTelemetry and offers resources for implementing it, aiming to make tech accessible and foster inclusive education.