Beyond Line Charts

For decades, visualization of service metrics overwhelmingly converges to line charts. The time-centric nature of real-time telemetry further cemented this phenomenon via storage layouts and domain-specific query languages.

But what questions do we, as service operators, ask or should ask? Can we find all the answers in line charts? Obviously my answer to that last question is no. And I want to show you how some of the most valuable operational questions are much better served by presenting, and perhaps processing, telemetry data and metadata in alternative formats.