Glossary
Distributed tracing
Definition
Distributed tracing follows a single request as it passes through many services, recording timing and context at each step.
Why it matters when you’re buying
In microservice systems it is often the quickest way to find which service made a request slow or fail. Tracing produces a lot of data, so sampling choices affect both cost and what you can investigate later.
How it relates to other terms
Traces are usually produced with OpenTelemetry, and a service mesh can add tracing data without code changes.
Where to go next
- Observability: news, companies and community questions
- How to evaluate Observability vendors: criteria, questions to ask and red flags
- Observability and monitoring: the latest stories and threads on this topic
Written by Techarda editors · Updated . Think a definition is wrong or missing something? Email engage@techarda.com. All terms.