Eight definitions of “observability” vs. “monitoring” – and why none of them work - Björn Rabenstein

Don't miss out! Join us at our next Flagship Conference: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon events in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (23-26 March, 2026). Connect with our current graduated, incubating, and sandbox projects as the community gathers to further the education and advancement of cloud native computing. Learn more at https://kubecon.io Eight definitions of “observability” vs. “monitoring” – and why none of them work - Björn Rabenstein When Prometheus became popular, the term “observability” was rarely used. A few years later, “observability” went on an impressive buzzword trajectory. For some, Prometheus became a core observability tool, while others wouldn't consider it an observability tool at all. Obviously, there is some confusion around what “observability” actually means and how it differs from “mere monitoring”. Let's explore common (and some not so common) definitions of “o11y” vs. “m8g”. We’ll evaluate if they make sense and how popular and useful they are. And maybe in the end, we'll finally know if Prometheus is actually an observability tool.