# Why platform engineers observe infra and help devs monitor apps

DevFeed: [Why platform engineers observe infra and help devs monitor apps](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/why-platform-engineers-observe-infra-and-help-devs-monitor-apps-12279.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://platformengineering.org/blog/why-platform-engineers-observe-infra-and-help-devs-monitor-apps>)

Author: Sam Barlien

Published: 2026-07-23T05:40:01Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Platform Engineering Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/platform-engineering-blog.md>)

Topics: [Platform Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/platform-engineering.md>), [Monitoring](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/monitoring.md>), [OpenTelemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/opentelemetry.md>), [distributed-systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/distributed-systems.md>), [Kubernetes](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/kubernetes.md>), [CI/CD](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cicd.md>)

Tags: [ci-cd](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ci-cd.md>), [infra](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/infra.md>), [infrastructure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/infrastructure.md>), [kubernetes](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kubernetes.md>), [monitoring](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/monitoring.md>), [opentelemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/opentelemetry.md>), [platform](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/platform.md>), [platform-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/platform-engineering.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains the dual mandate of platform engineering: maintaining visibility into shared infrastructure while enabling developers to monitor their own applications. It argues that infrastructure-only monitoring misses application-level failures in unpredictable self-service environments and presents OpenTelemetry as an enabler of monitoring at scale.

## Source excerpt

Learn why platform engineers must observe infrastructure and empower developers with effortless app monitoring and how OpenTelemetry enables both at scale.