Best Practices for Observability Centralization Points

Critical factors to consider

When setting up Observability Centralization Points, consider the following:

1. System Volume: The number of monitored systems impacts scaling. Larger infrastructures may need multiple centralization points to maintain performance.
2. Data Transfer Costs: In multi-cloud or hybrid environments, placing centralization points strategically reduces egress bandwidth costs.
3. Usability Without Netdata Cloud: Using fewer centralization points simplifies access and management when Netdata Cloud is not in use.
4. Optimized Deployment with Netdata Cloud: Netdata Cloud provides a complete infrastructure view, allowing you to optimize based on:
   • Security (internet access controls)
   • Cost (bandwidth and resource allocation)
   • Operational needs (regional, service, or team-based isolation)

Cost Optimization Strategies

Netdata is designed to keep observability efficient and cost-effective. To manage costs:

• Scale Out: Use multiple smaller centralization points to improve efficiency and performance.
• Use Existing Resources: Leverage spare capacity before dedicating new resources to observability.
• Centralized or Separate Logs & Metrics: Choose whether to store logs and metrics together or separately based on access needs, retention policies, and compliance.
• Flexible Configuration Management: Each centralization point can have unique retention and alert settings, helping to control costs and tailor observability for different teams or services.

Advantages of Netdata's Approach

Netdata provides several benefits over other observability solutions:

• Scalability & Flexibility: Multiple independent centralization points allow for customized observability by region, service, or team.
• Resilience & Reliability: Built-in replication ensures that observability continues even if a centralization point fails.
• Optimized Cost & Performance: Distributing workloads prevents bottlenecks and improves resource efficiency.
• Ease of Use: Netdata Agents require minimal setup and maintenance, reducing complexity.
• On-Prem Control: Centralization points remain on-prem even when using Netdata Cloud, keeping data within your infrastructure.
• Comprehensive Observability: Netdata enables deep visibility by segmenting infrastructure into independent observability points with tailored retention, alerts, and machine learning, while Netdata Cloud provides a unified view.

Following these best practices helps maintain a cost-effective, high-performance observability setup with Netdata.