Did Your Datadog Bill Explode?

Victor Hernando's article examines the escalating costs of custom metrics within observability platforms, particularly focusing on the challenge of metric cardinality and its impact on platforms like Datadog and Sysdig. Cardinality, which refers to the number of unique combinations of metric values, can lead to what is known as a cardinality explosion, thereby significantly driving up costs if not managed properly. The article provides a detailed comparison of the pricing models of Datadog and Sysdig, highlighting that Sysdig's pricing is significantly more economical, particularly for businesses managing large volumes of custom metrics. For instance, monitoring 10 million custom metrics can cost $6 million annually with Datadog, whereas Sysdig offers a tenfold cheaper alternative at $600,000. The discussion also includes an example involving Kubernetes clusters to illustrate how metrics costs differ between the two vendors, showcasing that Sysdig not only offers lower costs but also includes additional features at no extra charge. The article underscores the importance of monitoring cardinality growth to prevent unforeseen expenses and suggests that Sysdig provides a cost-effective solution with comprehensive observability features.