For years tech companies have chased the fabled “single pane of glass” , the one observability tool to understand your system from north to south and east to west. Leafing through promo materials promising instant insights and seamless turnkey integrations you’d think increasing system observability is as easy as assembling a Lego set.

In my experience chasing the “single pane of glass” translates to “pain in the ass”. Survey data supports this revealing the majority of engineers cite tool sprawl as a minor or non-existent problem despite relying on several tools. As alluring as the siren call of “single pane of glass” is, let's be practical and examine how to best observe systems across a myriad of tooling.

From the telemetry buffet of metrics, events, traces and logs learn when to reach for which type and ways to bridge the gaps with links and enhance with context to free yourself from the fool’s errand of a “single pane of glass”.