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Modern engineering teams often grapple with tool sprawl, where fragmented observability data from siloed systems complicates incident response. OpenTelemetry (OTEL) is emerging as the industry-standard, vendor-neutral framework for collecting telemetry data—logs, metrics, and traces—to break down these data silos. However, standardized data is only the first step. Rootly acts as the central incident management command center, integrating with OpenTelemetry to transform this data into automated, actionable response workflows.
This guide explains how to leverage Rootly and OTEL to create a unified observability strategy that reduces complexity and accelerates incident resolution.
The Challenge of Siloed Observability and the Rise of OpenTelemetry
Why Traditional Observability Falls Short
A high volume of alerts from numerous, disconnected observability tools creates a chaotic environment for responders. This fragmentation forces engineers into constant context-switching, which significantly slows down incident response and inflates Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR). As teams scramble to connect disparate data points, valuable time is lost that could be spent on analysis and remediation. This is a common challenge that Rootly centralizes observability to solve, turning procedural chaos into streamlined workflows.
What is OpenTelemetry (OTEL)? A Quick Primer
OpenTelemetry is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project that standardizes how telemetry data is generated, collected, and exported [5]. It provides a unified set of components:
- API: Vendor-agnostic interfaces for instrumenting code.
- SDK: The official implementation of the API, providing processing and exporting capabilities.
- Semantic Conventions: Standardized names and values for telemetry attributes to ensure consistency.
The goal is to offer vendor-agnostic instrumentation, freeing teams from proprietary solutions. While OTEL is a game-changer for standardizing data collection, it can also lead to an influx of raw data. The subsequent challenge is transforming this raw telemetry into actionable insights that drive remediation [1].
How Rootly Integrates with OpenTelemetry for Unified Observability
Rootly bridges the gap between standardized telemetry data from OTEL and the actionable workflows needed to manage incidents effectively. It provides the automation layer that makes unified observability a practical reality.
Centralizing Telemetry Data into a Single Command Center
Rootly functions as a central hub that can ingest data from any OTEL-compatible backend or data source. By consolidating telemetry signals, Rootly provides a single, cohesive view of system health during an incident. This eliminates the need for engineers to manually correlate data across different platforms.
Rootly’s flexibility is enhanced by its Generic Webhook, which allows it to connect with any observability tool, even those without a native integration. This ensures that no matter where your OTEL data is piped, it can be used to trigger automated workflows in Rootly, as seen in various platform integration guides [3].
Turning Raw OTEL Data into Automated Incident Workflows
Rootly’s true power lies in its automation engine, which transforms a passive OTEL signal into an immediate, structured response. When an alert derived from OTEL data is received, Rootly can execute a sequence of predefined actions automatically.
Examples of automated workflow actions include:
- Creating a dedicated incident channel in Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- Paging the correct on-call responder via PagerDuty or Opsgenie.
- Generating a Jira ticket with pre-populated incident details for tracking.
- Pulling relevant dashboards, runbooks, and other context directly into the incident channel.
These workflows are powered by a rich ecosystem of top Rootly integrations, allowing you to connect every part of your response process.
The Best Way to Use Rootly Alongside Prometheus and Grafana
Many teams depend on a combination of Prometheus for time-series metrics collection and Grafana for visualization. Rootly integrates seamlessly into this popular stack to create a robust monitoring and response pipeline.
Building a Seamless Monitoring and Response Ecosystem
Instead of replacing existing tools, Rootly augments them. An ideal workflow leverages the strengths of each platform:
- Detect: Prometheus detects an anomaly based on predefined rules and triggers an alert via Alertmanager.
- Visualize & Forward: Grafana visualizes the anomalous metric and forwards the alert to Rootly using a configured webhook.
- Respond: Rootly receives the alert and automatically initiates a full incident response process, from notifying teams to creating tracking tickets.
This model is consistent with how other platforms use OTEL to export trace data to backends like Grafana Tempo for enhanced visibility [4].
Workflow Example: From Grafana Alert to Automated Incident
Let's walk through a typical scenario. When a Grafana alert fires, it triggers a webhook pointing to Rootly. Rootly immediately springs into action. One of its most powerful features is the native Grafana integration, which can automatically pull and post a snapshot of the relevant graph directly into the incident's Slack channel.
This single action provides responders with immediate visual context without them ever needing to leave their communication platform. This capability is a core part of what makes Rootly's integrations with tools like Grafana so effective at reducing cognitive load during an incident.
Streamlining Post-Incident Processes with Rootly's Jira Integration
Connecting incident response to long-term remediation is critical for improving system reliability. Rootly's Jira integration automates this handoff, ensuring that action items are never lost.
Automating Ticket Creation and Project Management
Manually creating Jira tickets during or after an incident is tedious and error-prone. Critical follow-up tasks can be forgotten in the heat of the moment. Rootly’s Jira integration solves this by automating ticket creation. When an incident is declared in Rootly, a corresponding Jira issue can be created automatically, populated with key details like the incident summary, timeline, and involved services.
Bridging the Gap Between Incident Response and Remediation
This automation creates a seamless bridge between the incident response team and the development teams responsible for implementing fixes. It establishes a reliable system of record for all post-mortem action items, which improves accountability and ensures that preventative measures are tracked to completion. Jira is just one of the dozens of popular integrations that Rootly supports to streamline the entire incident lifecycle.
A Secure, Enterprise-Ready Integration Ecosystem
Rootly is built to connect your entire technology stack with a strong emphasis on security and ease of use.
Connecting Your Entire Stack with Confidence
Rootly’s strength lies in its ability to unify your complete technology ecosystem. This includes observability and alerting platforms, communication tools, and project management systems. The platform also integrates with service catalogs like Cortex, allowing you to pull rich metadata about your services directly into an incident [2].
Designed for Enterprise Security and Simple Setup
All integrations are secure by design. Sensitive credentials, such as API keys, are encrypted at rest using AES 256-bit encryption and are always protected with TLS while in transit. The setup process is designed to be straightforward. For most integrations, it's as simple as generating an API key from the third-party service and pasting it into the Rootly UI, a process exemplified in guides like the New Relic installation document.
Conclusion: Build a More Resilient Future with Unified Incident Management
By combining OpenTelemetry's data standardization with Rootly's intelligent automation platform, engineering teams can eliminate tool silos and build a powerful, unified incident management practice. The key benefits are clear: dramatically reduced MTTR, less manual toil for engineers, and improved cross-functional collaboration.
The effectiveness of this streamlined approach is proven in practice. Rootly leverages its own principles and integrations with tools like Sentry to reduce its internal MTTR by 50% [7], demonstrating the power of a deeply integrated and automated response process.
Ready to build a more resilient organization by unifying your tools? Explore Rootly's full list of integrations or book a demo to see how you can centralize observability and automate your incident response.