Production Observability with OpenTelemetry

Purpose

Implement production-grade observability using OpenTelemetry as the 2025 industry standard. Covers the three pillars (metrics, logs, traces), LGTM stack deployment, and critical log-trace correlation patterns.

When to Use

Use when:

• Building production systems requiring visibility into performance and errors
• Debugging distributed systems with multiple services
• Setting up monitoring, logging, or tracing infrastructure
• Implementing structured logging with trace correlation
• Configuring alerting rules for production systems

Skip if:

• Building proof-of-concept without production deployment
• System has < 100 requests/day (console logging may suffice)