Modern observability is built on a flawed foundation: three siloed pillars - logs, metrics, and traces - each powered by different engines with separate query models, storage formats, and operational costs. Users are forced to manually correlate across systems, accept duplication, or pay high SaaS bills. But what if observability is just a data problem? One that needs a general-purpose solution instead of purpose-built compromises? This talk argues that true observability requires fast, high-cardinality queries over unsampled data at scale and at low cost. Traditional search and metrics engines were not designed for this, but column-oriented databases are. We introduce ClickStack, a fully open source, OpenTelemetry-native observability stack built around ClickHouse. It provides fast, flexible querying and efficient storage, enabling real-time visibility without compromise.
Mike Shi is Head of Observability at ClickHouse building ClickStack, the open source observability stack built on ClickHouse and OpenTelemetry. He co-founded HyperDX, acquired by ClickHouse. Mike remains a hands-on developer, contributes to the OpenTelemetry and ClickStack ecosystems, and speaks regularly at observability-focused events.
