# [[Observability vs Monitoring]]
![[Observability vs Monitoring.svg]]
There is some disagreement on the relationship between [[Observability]] and [[Monitoring|Monitoring]] in the industry. In general, I monitoring is a subset of observability in the sense that monitoring is *one* way to make a system observable.
## Observabilty is the successor of monitoring
One popular, but outdated, view, is that observability is an evolution of monitoring. Monitoring is seen as the traditional way of tracking the performance of a system, involving setting up specific metrics to measure.
Observability in this context has a broader and more proactive approach. Instead of choosing what to measure and then setting up instrumentation to measure it, observability starts with the assumption that we don't know what needs to be measured, so we may as well measure it all.
However, it is less that monitoring has been replaced by observability and more that observability as a science has grown and matured at a level higher than monitoring.
## Observability is the end, and monitoring is the means
There is also a growing sentiment that the dichotomy of observability and monitoring is a false one, and that it is not productive to pit one against the other. This school of thought treats monitoring as one way to increase observability, but it is not the only way.
[[Michele Mancioppi]] describes observability as a desirable property of a system, and monitoring as a way to make systems observable. [^koh]
[^koh]: Mancioppi, M. (2022). _Canonical observability with Simon Aronsson and Michele Mancioppi_. [[Canonical Observability With Simon Aronsson and Michele Mancioppi|My highlights.]]
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