“Observability” seems to be the buzzword du jour in IT these days but what does it actually mean, and how is it any different from plain, old monitoring? In simple terms, observability is the ability to understand how a system is performing and how it is behaving from the data that system generates. It is not just about monitoring metrics or collecting logs, but also understanding the context of those metrics and logs, and how they relate to the overall health of the system.