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.
Gian is one of the original authors of the open source Apache Druid® project and co-founder and CTO at Imply. Gian served as the Apache Druid project’s first PMC chair. Previously, Gian led the data ingestion team at Metamarkets and held senior engineering positions at Yahoo. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Caltech.
