Observability Cost Optimization

Control telemetry cost without losing the signals your teams need.

Connect metrics, logs, traces, profiles, usage, retention, ownership, and business context in one cost view.

SmartC
Observability Cost Portfolio
Review
Telemetry Cost
$2.96M
Ingest Volume
8.4 PB
Open Actions
37
Signal
Service
Unit Cost
Logs
Checkout
$0.42 / GB
Metrics
Payments
$18 / 1K series
Traces
Search
$0.08 / 1K spans
Observability Cost Pressure

Telemetry volume grows across metrics, logs, traces, and teams.

Usage is difficult to attribute
Metric cardinality expands silently
Low-value logs consume ingest and storage
Trace volume exceeds investigative value
Retention outlives the operational need
Filtering decisions can remove needed evidence
Telemetry Inventory

See the signals, sources, pipelines, destinations, and cost components.

Metrics and metric series
Logs and indexed events
Traces, spans, and profiles
Collectors, pipelines, destinations, retention, and analysis tiers
Signals
Metrics, logs, traces, profiles, events
Sources
Services, applications, hosts, clusters, devices
Pipelines
Collection, enrichment, filtering, sampling, routing
Destinations
Observability, archive, analytics, and security tools
Observability Cost Composition

Separate the meters that create telemetry cost.

Collection and ingest
Processing and enrichment
Indexing, analysis, and query
Storage, retention, and archive
Observability Cost Allocation

Assign telemetry usage to the teams and services that generate it.

Team, service, department, and system
Application, product, environment, and region
Telemetry type, pipeline, and destination
Cost center, business unit, and accountable owner
SmartC
Telemetry Cost Allocation
98%
Service
Owner
Monthly Cost
Checkout
Commerce
$420K
Payments
Finance Tech
$318K
Shared Platform
Platform
$276K
Telemetry Unit Economics

Measure cost in the unit that explains the signal and its value.

The useful unit connects telemetry cost to the service or business activity it supports.

Cost per GB ingested or retained
Cost per metric series or active host
Cost per trace or span
Cost per service, user, request, or business transaction
Volume and Cardinality

Find the sources, labels, and dimensions driving telemetry growth.

High-volume services and sources
High-cardinality metric labels
Duplicate or rarely used telemetry
Growth trend, owner, and usage context
SmartC
Volume and Cardinality Review
Labels
Signal
Source
Growth
Metrics
Payments
+38%
Logs
Checkout
+24%
Traces
Search
+17%
Metrics Cost Optimization

Reduce underused metric volume while protecting dashboards, alerts, and queries.

Metric changes require validation against dashboards, alerts, recording rules, and operational use.

Aggregate underused metrics
Remove unnecessary labels
Downsample where resolution permits
Preserve exempt and critical signals
Logs Cost Optimization

Reduce noisy log volume before it becomes recurring ingest and storage cost.

Low-value and repetitive events
Debug and verbose logging outside approved need
Filtering, parsing, and field reduction
Convert suitable recurring events into metrics
SmartC
Log Volume Review
Filter review
Pattern
Volume
Usage
Health debug
1.8 TB
Low
Audit events
820 GB
Required
Retry events
640 GB
Alerting
Trace Cost Optimization

Retain the traces needed for performance and incident investigation.

Head sampling
Set collection rates before complete traces are available.
Tail sampling
Retain traces based on completed-trace attributes.
Service and route policies
Use different rules for different operational value.
Error and latency protection
Preserve traces needed for approved investigations.

Set collection rates before complete traces are available.

Retention and Storage

Align retention and access level to operational, business, and regulatory need.

SmartC identifies retention candidates. Authorized operational, security, legal, and data owners approve consequential changes.

Searchable and indexed retention
Lower-cost archive or long-term storage
Rehydration and investigation requirements
Signal-specific retention by use case
Hot
Frequently queried operational telemetry
Searchable
Investigation and reporting window
Archive
Lower-access long-term evidence
Expire
Approved end of retention need
Telemetry Pipeline and Routing

Shape telemetry before it reaches expensive destinations.

Filter
Exclude approved low-value records.
Transform
Remove unnecessary fields and normalize structure.
Enrich
Add ownership and business context.
Route
Send each signal to the destination that needs it.

Remove unnecessary fields and normalize structure.

Budgets, Forecasts, and Anomalies

Track telemetry spend by signal, service, and owner before month-end.

Current, projected, and historical cost
Budget by team, service, signal, or product
Volume, cardinality, ingest, and retention anomalies
Owner, evidence, and required review
SmartC
Observability Cost Forecast
Illustrative
Human-Approved Observability Actions

Turn telemetry-cost evidence into controlled optimization decisions.

SmartC calculates. People approve consequential observability changes.

Reduce low-value volume
Filter, aggregate, sample, or transform approved signals.
Change retention
Adjust searchable, archived, or expiry periods with approval.
Reallocate ownership
Assign telemetry cost to the accountable service and team.
Track outcome
Reconcile cost, volume, and required observability coverage.

Filter, aggregate, sample, or transform approved signals.

Before You Act

What to know before optimizing observability costs.

What observability costs are included?
Metrics, logs, traces, profiles, collection, ingest, processing, indexing, query, storage, retention, archive, and related platform usage where evidence is available.
How is telemetry cost allocated?
Use tags and metadata to assign usage to teams, services, departments, systems, environments, and cost owners.
How do we know whether telemetry is low value?
Review its use across dashboards, alerts, rules, queries, investigations, service requirements, and approved retention needs.
Can filtered telemetry be recovered?
Not always. Data removed before storage may be unavailable for later search or investigation, so changes require evidence and approval.
Is this the same as Cloud Cost Optimization?
No. Cloud Cost Optimization manages general cloud consumption and rates. Observability Cost Optimization focuses on telemetry volume, cardinality, sampling, retention, allocation, and signal value.
Does SmartC drop data or change sampling automatically?
No. Authorized people review service, incident, security, retention, and business impact before consequential telemetry changes.
Book a Demo

See telemetry cost, ownership, signal value, and optimization opportunities.

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Observability cost optimization assessment.

Review telemetry coverage, usage attribution, volume, cardinality, sampling, retention, pipeline controls, budgets, anomalies, and human-approved actions.

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