Most observability systems focus on reliability, scale, and insight, but rarely on sustainability. Every metric scraped, trace collected, and log retained consumes energy and storage, often far beyond what’s needed. This talk examines what the open source observability community can rethink to make monitoring greener and more efficient.
We’ll discuss how projects like Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, Loki, and OpenTelemetry can adopt lighter defaults, smarter sampling, and retention strategies that reduce waste without sacrificing visibility. We will focus on real-world examples to show how optimizing data flow and cardinality can lower energy use and infrastructure costs.
By the end of the session, attendees will understand where open source observability can evolve and what practical steps maintainers and users can take to build systems that balance reliability, performance, and environmental responsibility.
