# Breaking free from rising observability costs with open, cost-efficient architectures

DevFeed: [Breaking free from rising observability costs with open, cost-efficient architectures](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/breaking-free-from-rising-observability-costs-with-open-cost-efficient-architectures-4997.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://clickhouse.com/blog/breaking-free-from-rising-observability-costs-with-open-cost-efficient-architectures>)

Author: Mike Shi

Published: 2025-09-18T08:27:13Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [ClickHouse Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/clickhouse-blog.md>)

Topics: [observability](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/observability.md>), [elasticsearch](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/elasticsearch.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [log management](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/log-management.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/systems.md>)

Tags: [architecture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/architecture.md>), [cost](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cost.md>), [elasticsearch](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/elasticsearch.md>), [logs](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/logs.md>), [observability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/observability.md>), [open](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open.md>), [switching](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/switching.md>)

## AI overview

The article examines why observability costs increase as systems scale, linking the problem to legacy search-first architectures and pricing based on data ingestion or hosts. It traces the evolution from manual log processing and syslog through Splunk and Elasticsearch, then introduces an open, cost-efficient architecture centered on OTel-first collection, unified storage, and affordable long-term retention.

## Source excerpt

Observability costs rise because legacy search-first architectures and ingest/per-host pricing models conflict with modern analytics workflows. Learn the root causes and the open blueprint: OTel-first collection, unified storage, and affordable long reten