Telemetry

As explained in Cloud Observability in Action

Telemetry is the process of collecting signals from sources, processing them, and ingesting them into destinations for consumption.

Telemetry collects signals from sources, processes and routes them through agents, and ingests them into destinations for human or machine consumption. section 1.1

Telemetry connects four operational roles:

• Sources include application code, microservices, devices, databases, message queues, operating systems, APIs, and cloud services. section 1.1 section 1.6
• Instrumentation enables owned components to emit signals, while external components constrain you to selecting signals they already provide. section 2.0
• Agents collect, preprocess, route, and forward signals to destinations such as dashboards, alerts, storage, and analytics. section 1.1

Cloud-native request investigation

A Kubernetes microservices application emits telemetry from its components. An operator can use a metric to identify high latency, follow a trace to a request path, and inspect logs from a participating service. Correlating signals turns collection into actionable understanding rather than decoration. section 1.6 section 1.3

Figure 1.1 Observability overview

Use the overview to follow signals from sources through agents into destinations and back to system influence. section 1.1

How Cloud Observability in Action covers it

How deep it goes

Defines the source-agent-destination pipeline and discusses instrumentation, collection, processing, and signal costs without detailing individual signal implementations.

Examples

Uses Kubernetes microservices, application code, APIs, databases, metrics, traces, logs, dashboards, alerts, and long-term storage.

What you can do after

Operate telemetry by selecting signals, instrumenting owned sources, collecting them through agents, and sending them to central destinations.

How it connects

Connects sources, agents, destinations, instrumentation, observability, signal correlation, dashboards, alerting, storage, and analytics.

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Also explained in

• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Effective Platform EngineeringTelemetry data consists of automatically emitted records such as metrics, logs, and traces that describe software-system behavior, performance, and state.
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  liveBookmanning.com
  Secure APIsData and signals emitted by software about its execution, health, and behavior.
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  Google Anthos in ActionTelemetry is automatically collected information about system or service behavior, including metrics, logs, and traces.
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  Logs and TelemetryTelemetry data is machine-generated information about software or infrastructure behavior, including logs, metrics, and traces.
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  Build an AI Agent (From Scratch)Operational data and signals generated by a running system and transmitted for monitoring and analysis.
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  liveBookmanning.com
  Platform Engineering on KubernetesTelemetry is automatically generated data about software and system behavior, including metrics, logs, and traces.
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  liveBookmanning.com
  Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structureAn event containing measured operational data emitted by a device or system.

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Related concepts

• observabilityused by · Observability is the ability to infer a system’s internal state and behavior from its externally available outputs, such as logs, metrics, and traces.
• trajectoryhas part · A trajectory is an ordered sequence of states, actions, events, or operations that records or describes progression through successive steps or over time.
• instrumentationproduced by · Instrumentation is the addition or activation of mechanisms in software or systems to observe, measure, or record their behavior during execution.
• monitoringincludes · Monitoring is the ongoing observation and measurement of a system’s behavior, state, or operational signals to assess its condition and detect changes or problems.
• OpenTelemetryproduced by · OpenTelemetry is an open, vendor-neutral observability standard and framework for instrumenting software and generating, collecting, and exporting telemetry such as traces, metrics, and logs.
• metrichas part · A metric is a quantitative measure used to characterize or assess a property, condition, behavior, performance, or outcome.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Cloud Observability in Action. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.