As cloud-native architectures continue to mature, observability has become a foundational requirement rather than an optional add-on. According to the Cloud…

CNCF's platform is a leading organization driving cloud-native technologies and standards, offering insights into container orchestration, microservices architecture, and cloud-native infrastructure. Through whitepapers, case studies, and community events, CNCF provides insights into adopting cloud-native practices and technologies. Developers and DevOps teams can learn about Kubernetes, Prometheus, and other CNCF projects to build and operate scalable and resilient cloud-native applications.

CNCF

OpenTelemetry offers two main approaches for collecting telemetry data: the Collector and the agent. The Collector acts as a centralized service that aggregates, processes, and exports telemetry from multiple sources, offering advanced features like batching, filtering, and transformation. The agent is a lightweight process that runs alongside applications to capture telemetry locally with minimal overhead before forwarding it. The Collector excels in large-scale environments requiring centralized control and data transformation, while agents are ideal for application-level observability in containerized architectures. Most production setups benefit from combining both approaches to balance performance, scalability, and flexibility.

OpenTelemetry Collector vs agent: How to choose the right telemetry approach

What are the main components of the OpenTelemetry architecture?