Websites using Lightstep

Okay, let s break down Lightstep, covering its overview, revenue estimates, alternatives, pricing, and customer care.

Lightstep: Overview

Lightstep is an observability platform designed to help software engineers and DevOps teams understand the performance and behavior of complex, distributed systems (especially microservices-based architectures). It focuses on providing contextualized insights into application performance, allowing users to quickly identify the root causes of issues and optimize their systems.

• Key Features & Benefits:

  • Distributed Tracing: A core capability, Lightstep traces requests as they propagate through various services, providing a detailed view of the entire transaction flow.
  • Service Diagrams/Dependency Mapping: Automatically visualizes the relationships between services, making it easier to understand dependencies and potential bottlenecks.
  • Metrics and Logs Integration: While primarily focused on tracing, Lightstep can integrate with metrics and logging systems, providing a more holistic observability picture.
  • Change Intelligence: This feature helps correlate performance changes with code deployments, configuration updates, or other events, helping to pinpoint the cause of regressions.
  • Root Cause Analysis: Tools and features designed to help engineers quickly identify the root cause of performance problems and errors.
  • Contextualized Data: Lightstep enriches trace data with metadata, allowing engineers to filter, analyze, and understand the specific context of performance issues.
  • OpenTelemetry Support: Fully compatible with the OpenTelemetry standard, allowing seamless integration with OTel-instrumented applications.

• Target Audience:

  • Software Engineers
  • DevOps Engineers
  • SREs (Site Reliability Engineers)
  • Organizations running microservices architectures, cloud-native applications, and complex distributed systems.

Revenue Estimates:

Because Lightstep was acquired by ServiceNow, it is no longer an independent, publicly reporting company. Therefore, specific revenue figures for Lightstep alone are not publicly available. Its revenue is now folded into ServiceNow s overall financial results within their IT Operations Management product line. Before the acquisition (Oct 2021), estimates placed their annual recurring revenue (ARR) in the tens of millions of dollars.

Alternatives to Lightstep:

The observability market is competitive. Here are some notable alternatives to Lightstep, grouped by their strengths:

• APM (Application Performance Monitoring) Focus:

  • Datadog APM: A comprehensive platform that combines APM, infrastructure monitoring, logging, and other capabilities. Strong feature set and wide adoption.
  • New Relic: A mature APM tool with extensive features for monitoring application performance, infrastructure, and user experience.
  • Dynatrace: An AI-powered observability platform with automatic discovery, root cause analysis, and a focus on business impact.
  • AppDynamics (Cisco): APM platform with strong analytics and transaction tracing.

• Open Source / OpenTelemetry-Focused:

  • Jaeger (CNCF): An open-source, distributed tracing system inspired by Google s Dapper and OpenZipkin. Often used with Kubernetes.
  • Zipkin: Another open-source distributed tracing system, also inspired by Dapper.
  • Tempo (Grafana Labs): An open-source, high-scale distributed tracing backend. Works seamlessly with Grafana for visualization.
  • SigNoz: An open-source alternative to DataDog. It is built to run on ClickHouse or Kafka as a backend.
  • Uptrace: Open source APM on top of OpenTelemetry.

• Log Management & Analysis Combined:

  • Splunk: Powerful for log aggregation, analysis, and security information and event management (SIEM). Can be used for observability, but primarily known for logs.
  • Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK Stack): A popular open-source stack for log management, search, and visualization.

• Cloud-Native Observability:

  • Google Cloud Operations Suite (formerly Stackdriver): Deeply integrated with Google Cloud Platform.
  • AWS CloudWatch: Integrated with Amazon Web Services.
  • Azure Monitor: Integrated with Microsoft Azure.

Factors to Consider When Choosing an Alternative:

• Pricing Model: How is the platform priced (e.g., per host, per GB ingested, per user)?
• Ease of Use: How easy is it to set up, configure, and use the platform?
• Integration with Existing Tools: Does it integrate with your existing monitoring, logging, and alerting systems?
• Scalability: Can the platform handle the volume and velocity of data generated by your systems?
• Features: Does it offer the specific features you need (e.g., distributed tracing, service maps, root cause analysis)?
• OpenTelemetry Support: Essential for future-proofing your observability strategy.

Pricing:

Since the ServiceNow acquisition, Lightstep s pricing is integrated into ServiceNow s IT Operations Management (ITOM) offerings. You ll need to contact ServiceNow sales to get a custom quote.

Historically, Lightstep pricing was based on a combination of factors, including:

• Number of Spans Ingested: This is a core metric; the volume of tracing data you send to Lightstep.
• Data Retention: How long you need to store your trace data.
• Features Used: Access to certain advanced features might influence pricing.

Therefore, to get accurate pricing, you must contact ServiceNow directly and discuss your specific requirements.

Customer Care Details:

Because Lightstep is now part of ServiceNow, customer care and support are handled through ServiceNow s support channels.

• ServiceNow Support Portal: The primary portal for submitting support requests, accessing documentation, and engaging with the ServiceNow community. You ll likely need a ServiceNow account to access this.
• ServiceNow Documentation: Extensive documentation on the Lightstep features within ServiceNow.
• ServiceNow Community Forums: A place to ask questions, share knowledge, and connect with other ServiceNow users.
• ServiceNow Knowledge Base: A repository of articles, guides, and troubleshooting information.
• ServiceNow Customer Success: For larger enterprise customers, ServiceNow typically provides a dedicated Customer Success Manager to help with onboarding, adoption, and overall satisfaction.

How to Access ServiceNow/Lightstep Support:

1. If you are an existing ServiceNow customer: Use your existing ServiceNow login to access the support portal. If you don t have access, contact your ServiceNow administrator.
2. If you are evaluating Lightstep through ServiceNow: Contact ServiceNow sales, and they can connect you with the appropriate support resources.
3. Look for Lightstep-specific documentation within the ServiceNow documentation: When searching the ServiceNow documentation, include Lightstep in your search terms to filter for relevant content.

In summary, Lightstep is a powerful observability platform that is now part of ServiceNow. While specific pricing and support details are handled by ServiceNow, understanding its features and target audience is essential for determining if it s the right solution for your needs. Remember to evaluate alternatives carefully and consider your organization s specific requirements.