IBM NS1 Connect has introduced OpenTelemetry Protocol support for DNS Insights – offering seamless integration into modern observability stacks. This is a significant step forward in making network monitoring more versatile and accessible.
What is DNS Insights?
DNS Insights is a powerful analytics engine within IBM NS1 Connect that provides deep visibility into DNS traffic patterns and behaviours. DNS is mission-critical, yet DNS issues remain some of the hardest to diagnose. DNS Insights help organizations troubleshoot network issues in real-time, ensuring optimal performance and security. Now with OpenTelemetry support, DNS Insights extends that visibility directly into the tools enterprises already use and it becomes a seamlessly integrated component of your broader observability strategy.
Why OpenTelemetry matters for your DNS?
OpenTelemetry (OTel) has rapidly emerged as the open-source standard for collecting telemetry data, including traces, metrics and logs. Its vendor-neutral, highly extensible nature means that instead of being locked into proprietary data formats, you can now send your NS1 Connect DNS data to virtually any observability platform that supports OTel. It enables:
Frictionless data ingestions and broader accessibility – many products and platforms support OTLP, allowing users to integrate DNS Insights seamlessly into their existing observability stacks.
Enhanced flexibility with time series databases – DNS Insights now enables customers to send metrics to a wide variety of time series databases (TSDBs), opening up a world of possibilities for data storage and analysis.
Standardization – leverage a universally recognised standard for telemetry data and reduce custom integration work.
Real-World Impact
Imagine an SRE troubleshooting intermittent latency across a SaaS application. With DNS Insights streaming into their Grafana dashboards via OpenTelemetry, they can immediately detect if certain regions are experiencing slower DNS resolution or if queries are routing through underperforming endpoints. They can identify traffic patterns and understand where their queries are coming from and going to. They can detect unusual spikes or malicious traffic that might indicate a DDoS attack or other security threats. It dramatically accelerates root cause analysis and reduces time to recovery.
Next Steps
IBM NS1 Connect customers can begin exporting DNS Insights data using OTel today. You will find detailed instructions in the NS1 Help Center.
If you are not yet using DNS Insights, now is the perfect time to explore how adding OpenTelemetry can fortify your performance, security, and uptime strategy. You can read more on DNS Insights or contact a member of our sales team today.
More information:
What is OpenTelemetry?
OpenTelemetry vs. Prometheus: You can’t fix what you can’t see
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