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Yes! OpenTelemetry is a Critical Part of Securing Your Systems

Michael Bogan
Level Up Coding
Published in
7 min readJul 25, 2023

OpenTelemetry (OTel) is an open-source standard used in the collection, instrumentation, and export of telemetry data from distributed systems. As a framework widely adopted by SRE teams and security teams, OTel is more than just one nice-to-have tool among many; it is critical.

In this post, we’ll explore the role that OTel plays in system security. We’ll look at how telemetry data is used to secure systems along with how OTel securely handles telemetry data. Then, we’ll consider concrete practices — basic and advanced — that you can adopt as you use OTel in your organization.

Let’s begin by looking at the relationship between system security and telemetry data.

Telemetry data is essential

Robust system security relies on the application of many practices, including:

  • Defense in depth
  • Risk mitigation
  • Granular access control
  • Early threat detection and response
  • Resiliency and business continuity

Designing and implementing solid security requires a deep understanding of your systems coupled with high visibility into both your business systems and your security mechanisms. That visibility comes through the capturing and monitoring of telemetry data.

Telemetry data (logs, metrics, distributed tracing) provides information about the normal…

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Written by Michael Bogan

25 years of startups, products, and software architecture. Currently run DevSpotlight — tech content for tech companies. michael@devspotlight.com.

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