Just like having a strong observability platform, in the world of DevOps, ensuring the security of systems and applications is of utmost importance. In recent years, the risk of potential security breaches has increased, according to a British government study published in 2022. The survey found that approximately 39% of UK businesses experienced a cyberattack.

Understanding the relationship between observability and monitoring will help you gain a better security perspective for your DevOps and IT teams. From data breaches, malware and ransomware to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, you’ll be able to tackle these common threats. Navigating today’s complex and dynamic digital environments means that you need to know the key distinctions between observability and monitoring in order to mitigate security threats before they escalate.

Understanding Observability Vs. Monitoring

Observability and monitoring, while often used interchangeably, have distinct characteristics and purposes. Observability encompasses the ability to gain deep insights into complex systems, enabling proactive issue identification, debugging, and effective problem resolution. From a security perspective, observability plays a crucial role by providing valuable insights into complex systems and facilitating the proactive identification of vulnerabilities and potential threats.

On the other hand, monitoring focuses on systematically tracking and observing system behavior, performance and availability using predefined metrics and alerts. In terms of security, monitoring serves as a vital tool for detecting abnormal system behavior and generating alerts to notify DevOps teams of potential security incidents. By continuously monitoring system metrics and performance indicators, organizations can quickly identify deviations from expected norms and take appropriate action to mitigate potential risks.

Differentiating Observability and Monitoring From Telemetry

Telemetry is a reliable security ally of observability and monitoring. It serves as the essential foundation for collecting and transmitting data from diverse sources, encompassing observability and monitoring tools. It establishes the framework for extracting valuable insights that drive crucial decision-making processes.

While observability and monitoring tools play integral roles in the telemetry process by contributing specific data points and information, they extend their capabilities by providing comprehensive and detailed insights into system security. This holistic perspective allows for a deep understanding of the system’s behavior and facilitates the proactive identification of potential vulnerabilities.

By leveraging the combined power of telemetry, observability and monitoring, organizations gain a comprehensive view of their systems, empowering them to enhance security measures and effectively safeguard their assets.

The Role of Observability in Security

Observability plays a vital role in security by providing granular visibility into system components, application behavior and interactions. For example, by monitoring network traffic and analyzing logs, observability can reveal suspicious patterns or unauthorized access attempts, providing early indications of a potential security breach.

Hence, DevOps teams can be informed of security anomalies and potential threats, and as a result, they will respond quickly to potential incidents. DevOps professionals can also gain a comprehensive understanding of system behavior and access patterns, empowering them to implement effective security measures. The knowledge outcome and subsequent actions are typically shared across the affected organization and to a broader audience, aiding others in potential security breaches.

Additionally, observability provides transparency regarding the scope of impact, shedding light on what and who may be affected by a security incident. This transparency helps cultivate a culture of awareness and accountability within the organization.

Why Monitoring is Important in Security

Monitoring is instrumental in maintaining the security of systems and applications. It facilitates continuously tracking system health, performance metrics, and security indicators.

Proactive monitoring allows DevOps teams to detect unauthorized access attempts, system breaches, or unusual behavior in real-time. By monitoring security-related metrics, DevOps professionals can respond promptly, minimize the impact of security incidents and conduct thorough incident analysis for future prevention.

A common use case is monitoring system performance metrics, where CPU usage, memory utilization and network bandwidth can be tracked by the DevOps team and respond when an anomaly e.g., an unexpected spike, is detected. For instance, a sudden spike in CPU usage or a significant increase in outbound network traffic may indicate a malware infection or a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

Observability, Monitoring and APM

While observability and monitoring focus on system behavior and security, application performance monitoring (APM) concentrates on optimizing application performance. APM tools provide insights into code-level performance, transaction tracing and user experience. Integrating observability and monitoring data with APM solutions offers DevOps professionals a comprehensive understanding of application security and performance, enabling more effective security measures.

Observability and monitoring, although closely related, serve distinct purposes in the realm of DevOps security. Observability provides deep insights into system behavior and security anomalies, empowering proactive threat detection and incident response. Monitoring ensures continuous tracking of system health and security indicators, facilitating real-time detection and response to security incidents. By leveraging the strengths of both observability and monitoring, DevOps professionals can establish robust security measures and fortify their systems against potential threats.