Lightstep by ServiceNow

Paid

Unified observability and AIOps for the OpenTelemetry-first enterprise.

Capabilities: Distributed Tracing Analysis Service Level Objective (SLO) Tracking Change Intelligence & Root Cause Analysis High-Cardinality Metric Analysis Log Management and Contextualization

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9.5

Protocol Reliability Score

Overview

Lightstep, now fully integrated as ServiceNow Cloud Observability, is a high-scale observability platform built on the foundation of OpenTelemetry (OTel). Its architecture is designed to handle the massive data volumes produced by modern microservices without the prohibitive costs of traditional APM. In 2026, Lightstep leads the market by providing 'Change Intelligence,' a specialized engine that automatically correlates performance regressions with code deployments and infrastructure changes. This reduces Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) by eliminating the manual search for 'what changed.' By treating Traces, Metrics, and Logs (MELT) as a unified data stream, it allows SREs to pivot between high-level SLO dashboards and granular span-level data instantly. Furthermore, its native integration with the ServiceNow ITOM and ITSM suites creates a closed-loop system where performance issues in the cloud automatically trigger intelligent workflows and incident records in the ServiceNow platform, bridging the gap between DevOps and IT Operations.