Today’s observability platforms are often vertically integrated—binding data storage, query, and visualization layers into a single stack. This tight coupling drives up costs, makes integrations painful, and slows teams down. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this talk, we’ll explore how SRE teams can benefit from a more modular approach to observability—one inspired by the evolution of Business Intelligence. Just as BI stacks evolved to separate ETL, data warehouses, and dashboards, observability stacks can be designed around clear boundaries: interoperable tools, technology-neutral query layers, and plug-and-play storage. You’ll learn why decoupled observability architecture is essential for cost control, agility, and tool flexibility—and how to move toward a stack that meets the real-world needs of today’s SRE teams.
Kyle Hoondert is a Customer Architect at Imply, where he helps teams build and run fast, reliable analytics applications that handle massive real time and batch data at scale. Over his five plus years at Imply, he has served in multiple technical leadership roles including Lead Solutions Architect and Senior Sales Engineer, supporting customers across EMEA and beyond. Before Imply, Kyle spent more than a decade at Hitachi Vantara as a Specialist Solutions Architect and Senior Technical Consultant, following earlier roles in systems, storage and infrastructure engineering. He brings deep experience in distributed systems, data platforms and customer focused solution design.