Observability & Security: The Benefits and Approaches to Better and Safer Applications and Services

Published: June 2, 2023

Observability and Security are undoubtedly related. Security exposures and compromises happen in the dark, where no one is watching. An application with good Observability is inherently being watched, and it turns out that a lot of what you need to instrument and track to make sure an application is running, is also what you need to observe for possible security issues.  

Modern applications have become more complex, they are leveraging more containers and systems in the cloud, while also integrating more libraries, services, and backends than ever before. This is true for small business products, and Enterprise applications alike.

Security exposures, therefore, are more likely than ever to occur. Running complex applications, and keeping them performant and reliable, also requires good visibility into what’s happening in the stack of code and tools you’re running. 

Observed applications capture data and information from many different places. Capturing this instrumentation in a single place where it can be reported on delivers many business benefits, and it turns out it can help with improving the security posture of an application, product, or service, if instrumented correctly.

What kind of information needs to be captured for good observability, however, and what business benefits does observability provide? How does security posture relate to observability, and how do we extend our instrumentation to help with security insights?

These questions and more are addressed in our upcoming ebook How to Improve Security with Enhanced Observability. Stay tuned for its release on our LinkedIn! 

If you are interested in learning more about how Observability can accelerate your business’ security, reach out to info@solsys.ca for a consultation!

About the Author

John Tobin has been working in software development for around 30 years, and has been working with Agile methods in the role of scrum master and product owner for product development teams for about half of that time. John has worked extensively with teams to deliver products and services in challenging and complex environments, delivering hundreds of thousands of dollars of business value over this time.