The News: Cisco recently announced a new OpenTelemetry-based integration of Cisco AppDynamics application observability and ThousandEyes network intelligence. This integration will help customers quickly identify and resolve performance issues, improve application performance and availability, and ensure a better user experience. See the full Press Release from Cisco.

Cisco Unveils New OpenTelemetry-based Integration to Accelerate Full-Stack Observability

Analyst Take: Cisco’s announcement of a new integration of its OpenTelemetry-based application observability solution, Cisco AppDynamics, and ThousandEyes, part of Cisco’s network intelligence portfolio is good news for partners and end customers. The integration is bi-directional and exchanges data simultaneously between both solutions in real-time. This allows partners and end customers to determine if a performance problem stems from the network or application faster, using fewer tools.

In addition to the integration, Cisco also announced a new Customer Digital Experience Monitoring (CDXM) solution. CDXM is a cloud-based platform that provides a single view of customer experience across an organization’s entire digital estate. It includes features such as application performance monitoring, network intelligence, user experience monitoring, and synthetic transaction monitoring.

Cisco’s announcement of its integration and CDXM solution is a significant development. The integration provides a powerful way for organizations to quickly identify and resolve performance issues, as well as improve application performance and availability. CDXM provides a holistic view of customer experience by providing customers with a holistic view of how they are interacting with their digital applications and services.

The Market for Full-Stack Observability and OpenTelemetry-Based Services is Growing

The market for full-stack observability and OpenTelemetry-based services is snowballing, with OpenTelemetry capturing the attention of many vendors. This recent shift is due to the increasing complexity of modern applications, especially in hybrid multi-cloud deployments, and is further compounded by the need for organizations to have a holistic view of their IT infrastructure in order to ensure performance, availability, and security.

Full-stack observability is the practice of collecting and monitoring telemetry data from all layers of an application stack, including the application code, the underlying infrastructure, and the user experience. This data can then be analyzed to identify performance bottlenecks, security threats, and other issues.

OpenTelemetry is an open-source project that provides a standard set of APIs for collecting and exporting telemetry data. The purpose of OpenTelemetry is to help developers collect data from different sources, including metrics, log files, and traces, in order to analyze their software’s performance and behavior.

The observability market is expected to grow by close to 10% over the next few years and with many market watchers stating that the real CAGR growth is closer to 20%, this area of the market is hot right now. The key factors driving the growth of full stack observability include the fact that the complexity of modern applications is increasing, which is leading organizations to view their IT infrastructure as a whole. In addition, hybrid multi-cloud computing and DevOps, security, and compliance needs are also impacting the adoption of cloud computing, and as a result the growth of full-stack observability.

Summarizing the announcements, Cisco’s Liz Centoni, EVP, Chief Strategy Officer, and GM of Applications, stated that customers are dedicated to providing the best digital experiences for their businesses. However, while digital experiences are becoming easier for consumers, they are becoming more complicated for companies. She added that Customer Digital Experience Monitoring combines Cisco’s top-notch application observability and unmatched network intelligence to enable customers to discover all the application and network dependencies that were previously invisible.

Looking Ahead for Cisco

Cisco’s announcements are a sign of the growing importance of full-stack observability and OpenTelemetry-based services. Cisco’s integration of Cisco AppDynamics application observability and ThousandEyes network intelligence will help organizations improve their digital experiences by providing them with a powerful way to identify and resolve performance issues, improve application performance and availability, and ensure a better user experience. The CDXM offering provides a holistic view of customer experience by enabling organizations to understand how their customers are interacting with their digital applications and services.

As organizations increasingly adopt hybrid multi-cloud deployments and need to have a holistic view of their IT infrastructure, Cisco’s integration of Cisco AppDynamics and ThousandEyes can help them to quickly identify and resolve performance issues, improve application performance and availability, and ensure a better user experience. I expect to see OpenTelemetry find its way into more observability solutions in the coming months as vendors look to harness the rapid evolution of the open-source community.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.

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