1. OpenTelemetry Gains Momentum
OpenTelemetry (OTel) will solidify its position as the go-to standard for observability, driven by a desire for openness, flexibility, and community collaboration.
Why it matters:
Organizations increasingly reject vendor lock-in, seeking solutions that offer interoperability across platforms and libraries.
What to expect:
- Broader adoption of OTel collectors, enabling teams to take control of their telemetry data with enhanced sampling, filtering, and enrichment capabilities.
- Integration of semantic conventions for richer context in observability data, improving root cause analysis and troubleshooting.
- Platforms like Vercel and others incorporate OTel into their offerings, making observability more accessible.
- In 2025 we will see major observability players switching their default way of collecting telemetry from their proprietary technology to OpenTelemetry.
- Profiling and RUM will become more stable and will be adopted by the OTel community.
2. LLM Observability Becomes Mainstream
With large language models (LLMs) becoming foundational to application architectures, the observability of LLMs will transition from niche to necessity.
Why it matters:
Every modern application will use LLMs for tasks like natural language processing, decision-making, and automation, requiring dedicated observability approaches to ensure performance, reliability, and security.
What to expect:
- Observability platforms will offer LLM-focused features, such as prompt-response monitoring, latency tracking, and bias/error detection.
- Increased consolidation in the industry, with acquisitions of specialized vendors addressing LLM-specific observability needs.
3. Generative AI as a Game-Changer
After years of hype, generative AI (GenAI) will prove its value in enabling developers and operators to work more effectively.
Why it matters:
Moving beyond chatbots, GenAI will power actionable use cases that directly enhance observability workflows.
What to expect:
- Use of GenAI for automating log and span grouping, anomaly detection, and telemetry data enrichment.
- Improved root cause analysis by combining enriched observability data with other machine learning models.
- Enhanced usability and adoption of observability tools as AI simplifies complex data and surfaces insights proactively.
4. Open Source Observability as a Standard
The open-source ecosystem will continue to thrive, establishing itself as the backbone of observability—even beyond OpenTelemetry.
Why it matters:
Enterprises and startups alike value open-source tools for their flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and strong community support.
What to expect:
- Perses, an emerging open-source visualization tool, will see adoption by vendors looking for customizable observability dashboards.
- Databases like ClickHouse will grow in popularity for telemetry data, especially for large-scale implementations like Spotify’s observability stack.
- Prometheus and PromQL will remain the default standard for metrics storage and querying, cementing their role in observability architectures.
5. Consolidation and Maturation of the Observability Ecosystem
In 2024 we have seen large acquisitions in the observability space, like Cisco acquiring Splunk for $28B. As the observability market matures, we will see significant consolidation, with larger players acquiring specialized vendors to provide end-to-end observability solutions.
Why it matters:
Enterprises demand unified platforms that seamlessly integrate metrics, traces, and logs while addressing new domains like LLM observability. Security will also become an integral part of observability platforms, driving consolidation even further.
What to expect:
- A shift toward fewer but more comprehensive observability platforms.
- Greater emphasis on open standards and extensibility to cater to diverse use cases.
Final Thoughts
Open standards, AI-driven innovation, and the mainstream adoption of LLM and generative AI use cases will define observability in 2025. Organizations that embrace these trends will be better positioned to build resilient, high-performing systems while enabling their teams to work more effectively.
For Dash0 2025, we will show what is possible in terms of enhanced usage of AI and analytics and make OpenTelemetry and Observability easy to use.
The screenshot shows a preview of our Integration Hub, making it easy for users to get out-of-the-box Perses dashboards, Prometheus alerts, and instrumentations for all their technologies with just one click. Enabling faster adoption and stress-free setup. Stay tuned and expect a first version of it soon.
