Episode
#63 - Does "Big Observability" Neglect Mobile?
- Podcast
- Reliability Enablers
- Published
- Nov 12, 2024
- Duration seconds
- 1751
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://read.srepath.com/p/63-mobile-apps-and-how-observability
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Summary
Andrew Tunall is a product engineering leader focused on pushing the boundaries of reliability with a current focus on mobile observability. Using his experience from AWS and New Relic, he’s vocal about the need for a more user-focused observability, especially in mobile, where traditional practices fall short. * Career Journey and Current Role : Andrew Tunall, now at Embrace, a mobile observability startup in Portland, Oregon, started his journey at AWS before moving to New Relic. He shifted to a smaller, Series B company to learn beyond what corporate America offered. * Specialization in Mobile Observability : At Embrace, Andrew and his colleagues build tools for consumer mobile apps, helping engineers, SREs, and DevOps teams integrate observability directly into their workflows. * Gap in Mobile Observability : Observability for mobile apps is still developing, with early tools like Crashlytics only covering basic crash reporting. Andrew highlights that more nuanced data on app performance, crucial to user experience, is often missed. * Motivation for User-Centric Tools : Leaving “big observability” to focus on mobile, Andrew prioritizes tools that directly enhance user experience rather than backend metrics, aiming to be closer to end-users. * Mobile's Role as a Brand Touchpoint : He emphasizes that for many brands, the primary consumer interaction happens on mobile. Observability needs to account for this by focusing on user experience in the app, not just backend performance. * Challenges in Measuring Mobile Reliability : Traditional observability emphasizes backend uptime, but Andrew sees a gap in capturing issues that affect user experience on mobile, underscoring the need for end-to-end observability. * Observability Over-Focused on Backend Systems : Andrew poi…