OpenTelemetry’s Hidden Energy Impact – EcoTech Insights
Transcript
Tools meant to monitor system efficiency are now being scrutinized for their own environmental cost. Open telemetry widely used for observability is emitting more than just data. It's consuming energy, memory, and compute at a scale that's prompting a second look at CubeCon Europe.
Dynatrace's, Adriana Veia presented benchmarking results using Kepler, a tool that tracks energy output in Kubernetes pods. Her findings, custom built open telemetry collectors used less memory and less power than standard versions. According to the CMCF.
This type of observability framework has more than 500 active contributors. With adoption increasing, the focus is shifting to its own operational overhead. Framing performance around emissions resonates more with developers than cost metrics.
Telling a team their app emits as much CO2 as 30 cars due in traffic. Well, that gets more traction than citing cloud costs. Dynatrace is also leveraging Cube Green, a time-based auto-scaling tool that lets Kubernetes pods sleep during off hours.
They've integrated it into internal observability pipelines without relying on Prometheus to cut back on processing overhead and reduce overnight idle usage. As telemetry infrastructure becomes more embedded in critical systems, its own performance characteristics are attracting greater scrutiny. The focus is shifting from what observability tools deliver to how efficiently they operate.
