While visiting KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America last month, we found that with the rapid adoption of microservice architectures cloud-native observability is on everyone’s mind. We wanted to learn more about the implementation journey, preferences, and challenges companies are currently facing when it comes to the observability of their architecture. So, we decided to conduct an observability survey among attendees that visited our exhibition booth to find out where the journey of observability solutions should head next.
Gathering and analyzing the responses of our research, the results provided us with interesting findings regarding the state of cloud-native observability. We are happy to share the insightful results with you below.
Wide adoption of Kubernetes
First off, among the participants almost 40 % are adopting native Kubernetes and more than one third is adopting managed Kubernetes. The remaining 15 % are using different commercial platforms, while only less than 5 % have not adopted any platform yet. Our findings reflect therefore with CNCF’s prediction that soon over 90 percent of apps will be developed in cloud-native microservice architecture.
The participating companies most commonly had 2 to 5 production cluster (almost 40 %). Overall, around 67 % of companies had 10 or less cluster in use. This stands in contrast with the 21 % of companies that have over 50 production cluster.
Selection criteria for observability stacks
We found in our survey that almost half of companies are still attempting to develop their own solution based on Prometheus, while over a third are using a commercial provider. The remaining 15 % has not yet selected their observability solution.
The indicated selection criteria were evenly distributed between ease of use, the availability of certain features, and respondents who didn’t have a specific reason for their choice. This highlights that users especially look for an intuitive solution with a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate. At the same time, availability of features such as logging, automation, or certain data viewing options are also crucial.
Scalability, ease of use and other observability challenges
Respondents reported various challenges they are facing with their current observability stack. Almost 30 % struggle with scalability and 27 % highlight that the before-mentioned user-friendliness is lacking when it comes to the observability solution that they are currently using. In the survey, 23 % of participants also mentioned high pricing and staggering cost as a major obstacle. Finally, security concerns as well as issues due to the lack of internal expertise could also be found on the list of replies regarding common challenges.
Addressing needs with a balanced solution
So, what can we conclude based on these answers? It seems clear that we can detect a market demand for an intuitive, easy-to-use observability solution that replaces the need for expensive internal knowhow, which is needed when developing your own stack based on open source software. This solution should offer observability at an affordable price and provide scalability, as well as much needed features such as automation or a global view.
Reflecting such needs, we developed NexClipper with the philosophy in mind of ‘easy observability without compromise’. A managed service, based on the best that the open source community has to offer, allows user to benefit from our expertise without the need for internal knowhow. At the same time, all preferred features are available: a guided dashboard with a bird-eye view of all clusters as well as links to detailed views and Grafana dashboards, or automation for provisioning and scheduling to get you up and running in under 30 minutes. NexClipper also delivers when it comes to scalability and security, so that the solution can grow together with its users. To address the raised concerns regarding cost, we offer predictable all-in per-node pricing that helps companies safe when it comes to their observability spending.
If you are interested in learning more about the features and benefits of NexClipper visit the Product Page on our website.
In conclusion, we would like to thank all participants of our survey at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America – the insightful responses revealed where the journey of cloud-native observability solutions should head next. NexClipper is happy to set our sails to be on the right course!
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this topic further, feel free to reach out to us at support@nexclipper.io.