--- title: "Why Logs, Metrics and Traces Still Don’t Give You Real Observability" url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-logs-metrics-and-traces-still-don-t-give-you-real-observability-xkoqmowxi source_url: https://devops.com/why-logs-metrics-and-traces-still-dont-give-you-real-observability type: article source: "DevOps.com" published: 2026-05-29T10:31:06.812Z updated: 2026-05-29T10:31:39.866Z tags: ["observability", "distributed-systems", "opentelemetry"] reading_time: 8 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Why Logs, Metrics and Traces Still Don’t Give You Real Observability **[DevOps.com](https://daily.dev/sources/devops)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The three-pillar observability model (logs, metrics, traces) is a solid foundation but has meaningful gaps in modern distributed systems. Key blind spots include: the 'known unknowns' problem where uninstrumented failure modes leave teams blind during incidents; high-cardinality limitations in traditional metrics systems that prevent slicing by user, region, or tenant combinations; context collapse in async workflows, third-party calls, and serverless environments; and business logic blind spots where technically healthy services return wrong results. The post advocates moving toward structured events (JSON with rich fields), high-cardinality querying tools like Honeycomb or ClickHouse, continuous verification of business correctness in production, and post-incident instrumentation reviews. OpenTelemetry is recommended as the vendor-neutral standard for emitting all signal types. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Reading Observability Tools? That’s a Robot’s Job](https://daily.dev/posts/reading-observability-tools-that-s-a-robot-s-job-65lmkst3l) · The Last Week in AWS · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Telemetry that matters: Designing sustainable, high-impact observability pipelines](https://daily.dev/posts/telemetry-that-matters-designing-sustainable-high-impact-observability-pipelines-vnwf2uag2) · CNCF · 6 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why Observability is Critical for Modern Cloud‑Native Systems](https://daily.dev/posts/why-observability-is-critical-for-modern-cloud-native-systems-iqylreqhz) · Cloud Native Now · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#observability](https://daily.dev/tags/observability), [#distributed-systems](https://daily.dev/tags/distributed-systems), [#opentelemetry](https://daily.dev/tags/opentelemetry) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-logs-metrics-and-traces-still-don-t-give-you-real-observability-xkoqmowxi)