Ever had your app crash at the worst moment, during checkout or a key transaction internally? When that happens, users leave fast. Behind each crash is a bigger story: alerts firing, teams scrambling, and no clear root cause. Modern systems are fast, complex, and full of hidden failure points. One small change can ripple through the entire system in seconds. Observability is the cornerstone of reliable systems. It allows teams to identify and debug issues before they impact a broader group of users. Yet building an ideal observability stack is far from easy. It requires time and effort - instrumenting every app, service, and component to emit telemetry data.

This talk frames observability not as an ops task but as an engineering discipline. Built on open standards like OpenTelemetry, it avoids vendor lock-in and puts control back in the developer’s hands. You’ll learn how to instrument Python apps, build cost-effective telemetry pipelines, and export data for analysis - without falling into any compliance pitfalls. It's not just about logs, metrics, or traces - the goal is to extract clear business value from every signal and every dollar spent. By aligning observability with outcomes, we create an adaptive, efficient, and cost-aware setup. Whether you're just starting out or operating at scale, you'll see how adopting open standards can turn observability into a strategic asset instead of a liability.