Jaeger

Jaeger is the open-source distributed tracing system trusted by companies like Uber, Red Hat, and thousands of DevOps teams worldwide to monitor and troubleshoot complex microservices architectures by tracking exactly how requests flow through distributed systems. As a Cloud Native Computing Foundation graduated project, Jaeger has become the industry standard for distributed tracing, providing essential visibility into microservices performance and dependencies.

Originally developed at Uber to handle their massive scale of distributed services and open-sourced in 2017, Jaeger has become the preferred choice for organizations running cloud-native applications. Companies like Grafana, LINE Corporation, and numerous enterprises rely on its distributed tracing capabilities, service dependency mapping, and performance analysis to maintain reliable, scalable microservices architectures.

DevOps teams and platform engineers choose Jaeger when they need comprehensive visibility into distributed systems without vendor lock-in or proprietary limitations. The platform’s low-overhead instrumentation, cloud-native architecture, and extensive integration ecosystem make it ideal for organizations that want to understand and optimize their microservices performance while maintaining the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of open-source solutions.

Key Features

• Comprehensive Distributed Tracing - Track requests across multiple microservices with detailed timing, dependencies, and error path analysis • Interactive Service Dependency Maps - Visualize entire service architecture and understand component interactions in real-time • Advanced Performance Analysis - Identify bottlenecks, optimize response times, and monitor system health with detailed metrics • Intelligent Sampling and Low Overhead - Configurable sampling rates ensure minimal performance impact while capturing critical traces • Cloud-Native Architecture - Kubernetes-ready deployment with service mesh integration for Istio, Linkerd, and other platforms • Extensive Integration Ecosystem - Compatible with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, and major observability platforms • Flexible Storage Backends - Support for Elasticsearch, Cassandra, Kafka, and other storage solutions for scalable trace data • Comprehensive Query and Search - Powerful trace search capabilities with filtering, aggregation, and comparison features

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Open-source foundation eliminates vendor lock-in while providing enterprise-grade distributed tracing capabilities • CNCF graduated status ensures long-term sustainability and community support • Low overhead instrumentation maintains application performance while providing comprehensive visibility • Extensive integration ecosystem works seamlessly with existing observability and monitoring tools • Cloud-native design scales effectively with modern containerized and serverless architectures

Cons

• Setup and configuration complexity requires microservices and observability expertise • Limited out-of-the-box analytics compared to commercial APM solutions • Storage and infrastructure costs can increase significantly with high-volume tracing • Learning curve for teams new to distributed tracing concepts and analysis • May require additional tools for comprehensive application performance monitoring beyond tracing

Get Started with Jaeger

Gain essential visibility into your distributed systems with the tracing platform trusted by Uber, Red Hat, and cloud-native teams worldwide. Visit jaegertracing.io to start monitoring microservices performance and dependencies with industry-standard distributed tracing.