Update: Edge Delta Standardizes on the OTel Schema for Logging

We have an important product update: Edge Delta now supports the OpenTelemetry schema for logs out of the box. 

With this update, when you collect data using the Edge Delta agent, it will automatically format your logs using the OpenTelemetry schema – there is no additional lift required by the user. The OpenTelemetry schema will be the single standard for analyzing your log data within the Edge Delta platform. You can also route this data to third-party vendors via Observability Pipelines.

(Of course, you have the freedom to move your data into a different schema with ease, if you so please.)

Why We’re Standardizing on OTel

In our conversations with customers and prospects, there is an overwhelming desire for teams to adopt OpenTelemetry. The most prevalent driver for this change is vendor neutrality. It’s clear that there are technical and financial limitations to incumbent observability platforms, and many of the teams we speak to are outgrowing these offerings. However, there is little support for interoperability amongst legacy vendors and no clean way to break away from the platforms. 

All that said, while teams want to adopt OpenTelemetry, making this shift can be incredibly difficult and time-consuming. It requires the buy-in of your internal customers and engineering cycles to re-instrument application code. You may also sacrifice observability functionality in the process (more on that in the next section). 

We’ve adopted OTel as our telemetry data schema to help customers make this shift with as little disruption as possible. As a result, you can standardize on the OpenTelemetry schema without any code changes. 

Moreover, since the Edge Delta agent supports routing to multiple vendors, this unlocks a multi-vendor observability strategy. Now, you can easily adopt the OpenTelemetry schema and ship this data to different platforms – whether to support different teams and use cases, or to tier data and optimize cost efficiencies. As a byproduct, you’ll mitigate vendor lock-in to any one platform across the board.

Edge Delta’s Log Search Embraces the Single Standard

It’s also worth spelling out that our native Log Search & Analytics product now leverages the OpenTelemetry schema to display and query log data. We see this as a clear area of differentiation from incumbent vendors in our space. 

OpenTelemetry, of course, standardizes how telemetry signals are collected. However, observability vendors continue maintaining their own proprietary standard, which typically requires users to populate specialized fields to derive full value from their feature set. As a result, there is usually no way to leverage every feature while using the OpenTelemetry schema.

In other words, many vendors’ proclaimed support for OpenTelemetry is largely superficial. 

Edge Delta is taking the opposite stance. Our users will always be able to leverage our complete set of capabilities, without giving up the benefits of OpenTelemetry. 

What’s Next?

Edge Delta is treating OpenTelemetry as a “first-class citizen” within our product. We will continue moving data items to the OpenTelemetry schema in the coming months. Next, we will make the same shift to metrics and log patterns. Stay tuned!