Best of Observability — September 2025

1. 1
   Article

   Platformatic·29w

   Open Source Node.js Command Center Released

   Platformatic has open-sourced their Intelligent Command Center (ICC), a specialized tool designed to optimize Node.js applications running in Kubernetes. The platform addresses common issues with traditional autoscaling by monitoring Node.js-specific metrics like Event Loop Utilization and heap usage instead of generic CPU/memory metrics. ICC provides predictive autoscaling, comprehensive observability, advanced caching infrastructure, and can reduce resource usage by up to 30% while improving performance. The tool integrates with existing Kubernetes infrastructure and includes features like flamegraph profiling, cache analytics, and unified dashboards for operational visibility.

   47
2. 2
   Article

   Blueground Engineering·30w

   A Software Engineer’s Guide to Observability

   A comprehensive guide to observability for engineering teams, covering the three pillars (logging, tracing, metrics) and their practical applications. Explains why observability has become critical in the era of distributed systems and AI-generated code, where complexity is increasing while domain expertise is becoming more distributed. The guide focuses on understanding when and why to use different observability tools rather than just how to configure them.

   38
3. 3
   Article

   Charity·30w

   Are you an experienced software buyer? I could use some help.

   Charity Majors is seeking advice from experienced software buyers for the second edition of 'Observability Engineering'. She needs guidance on enterprise software procurement processes, including vendor evaluation, proof of concepts, stakeholder management, and decision-making frameworks. The new edition will include a section on observability governance covering team structure, tool selection, cost management, and business cases.

   33
4. 4
   Article

   Grafana Labs·29w

   Grafana 12.2 release: LLM-powered SQL expressions, updates to canvas and table visualizations, simplified reporting, and more

   Grafana 12.2 introduces LLM-powered SQL expressions for natural language query generation, enhanced table visualizations with new cell types and formatting options, improved canvas visualization with flexible pan/zoom capabilities, enhanced ad hoc filtering support for SQL data sources, and simplified one-page reporting. The release also includes updates to Drilldown apps for queryless data exploration, a new Jenkins Enterprise data source for CI/CD metrics, and authentication support for visualization actions with the Infinity data source.

   23
5. 5
   Article

   Svelte Blog·32w

   What’s new in Svelte: September 2025

   September 2025 brings several updates to the Svelte ecosystem including Deno support as a package manager, the ability to use await in @const declarations, and new OpenTelemetry tracing capabilities for observability. The release also includes CLI improvements and showcases numerous community projects, learning resources, and new libraries built with Svelte.

   23
6. 6
   Article

   InfoQ·29w

   Kubernetes 1.34 Released with KYAML, Traffic Routing Controls, and Improved Observability

   Kubernetes 1.34 introduces KYAML, a streamlined YAML subset to reduce configuration errors, enhanced traffic routing controls for network operators, and production-grade tracing for kubelet and API server using OpenTelemetry. The release includes 58 enhancements with improved security features like X.509 certificate management for pods, ServiceAccount tokens for image credential providers, and ordered namespace deletion to prevent security vulnerabilities.

   17
7. 7
   Article

   OpenTelemetry·31w

   How to Name Your Metrics

   OpenTelemetry metrics should focus on what is being measured rather than who is measuring it. Service names, units, and deployment context belong in attributes, not metric names. This approach enables cross-service aggregation, reduces namespace clutter, and creates reusable dashboards. Clean metric names like 'transaction.count' with service.name attributes are more maintainable than traditional patterns like 'payment_service_transaction_total'.

   14