Jaeger

L6 — Observability & Feedback Distributed Tracing Free (OSS) Apache-2.0 · OSS

OSS distributed tracing system. Apache-2.0 under CNCF. OpenTelemetry-native, scales to billions of spans/day. Originated at Uber. Strong fit as the OSS tracing backend for OpenTelemetry pipelines.

AI Analysis

Jaeger is the OSS distributed tracing system — Apache-2.0 license under CNCF. OpenTelemetry-native, scales to billions of spans/day. Originated at Uber. Pick Jaeger as the OSS tracing backend for OpenTelemetry pipelines.

Trust Before Intelligence

Jaeger's distributed tracing is the canonical L6 primitive for cross-service observability. From a Trust Before Intelligence lens, traces enable forensic analysis of agent decisions across services. Pairs with OpenTelemetry as the universal instrumentation standard.

INPACT Score

27/36
I — Instant
5/6

Trace ingest sub-100ms.

N — Natural
4/6

OpenTelemetry standard.

P — Permitted
3/6

Backend-dependent. Cap applied.

A — Adaptive
5/6

Multi-cloud, multi-backend.

C — Contextual
5/6

Span attributes + service map + dependency graph.

T — Transparent
5/6

Trace = transparency.

GOALS Score

19/25
G — Governance
3/6

1/6 -> 3.

O — Observability
5/6

Tracing is its purpose. 3/6 -> 5.

A — Availability
4/6

5/6 -> 4.

L — Lexicon
3/6

1/6 -> 3.

S — Solid
4/6

5/6 -> 4.

AI-Identified Strengths

  • + Apache-2.0 CNCF-graduated
  • + OpenTelemetry-native
  • + Hyperscale-tested at Uber
  • + Multi-backend (Cassandra/Elasticsearch/OpenSearch)
  • + Default OSS tracing

AI-Identified Limitations

  • - Backend-dependent operational complexity
  • - Compliance via substrate
  • - Less mature than commercial alternatives

Industry Fit

Best suited for

OpenTelemetry-native distributed tracingMulti-cloud tracing backendsCost-effective vs commercial APM

Compliance certifications

OSS Apache-2.0; substrate compliance.

Use with caution for

Operational complexity priority (managed alternatives)

AI-Suggested Alternatives

AWS X-Ray

X-Ray for AWS-native managed. Jaeger for OSS multi-cloud.

View analysis →
Datadog

Datadog for commercial unified. Jaeger for OSS dedicated tracing.

View analysis →

Integration in 7-Layer Architecture

Role: L6 distributed tracing.

Upstream: OpenTelemetry spans.

Downstream: Trace UI + service map + queries.

⚡ Trust Risks

high Trace sampling rate too low — missing critical traces

Mitigation: Tune sampling per workload. Critical paths sampled at higher rate.

Use Case Scenarios

strong OpenTelemetry stacks needing OSS tracing backend

Jaeger's purpose.

weak Managed unified APM preference

Datadog fits.

Stack Impact

L6 L6 distributed tracing backend.

⚠ Watch For

2-Week POC Checklist

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This analysis is AI-generated using the INPACT and GOALS frameworks from "Trust Before Intelligence." Scores and assessments are algorithmic and may not reflect the vendor's complete capabilities. Always validate with your own evaluation.