Atlassian Rebuilds Metrics Pipeline Around OpenTelemetry at Massive Scale

Billy Odell Tucker-Robinson Founder & Host — Banking With Billy Network • Intelligence Network • Data Science • AI Research • World News
Published: 2026-09-29T11:06:49.005Z • Permanent link

Atlassian, the Australian software company behind popular productivity and collaboration tools like Jira and Trello, has successfully migrated its metrics platform from gostatsd to OpenTelemetry, a move that marks a significant shift in the company's approach to data collection and analysis. The migration, which was first announced in April 2022, involved a team led by Atlassian's own engineers and data scientists, who worked closely with OpenTelemetry's development community to ensure a seamless transition.

According to sources close to the project, the decision to switch from gostatsd to OpenTelemetry was driven by the need for greater scalability and flexibility in the company's metrics platform. Gostatsd, a proprietary metrics system developed by Atlassian, had been instrumental in collecting and analyzing data from the company's vast network of hosts across 14 regions. However, as the company's growth accelerated, gostatsd began to show signs of strain, with data collection and processing times becoming increasingly slow.

Leading the charge on the migration effort was Atlassian's own Chief Technology Officer, Mike Cannon-Brookes, who oversaw the development of the company's new metrics platform. Cannon-Brookes, a well-respected figure in the tech industry, has been instrumental in driving Atlassian's adoption of cloud-based technologies and has played a key role in shaping the company's approach to data analytics.

The migration to OpenTelemetry has significant implications for the Data Sources domain, with far-reaching consequences for companies like Atlassian, as well as researchers and analysts who rely on the company's metrics data. One of the key benefits of OpenTelemetry is its ability to handle massive amounts of data from multiple sources, making it an attractive solution for companies like Atlassian that operate in highly distributed environments.

Atlassian's move is also likely to have a significant impact on the broader research community, which has long relied on the company's metrics data to inform its studies of cloud-based systems and large-scale networks. Researchers at institutions like MIT and Stanford, who have published numerous papers on the topic of cloud-based data collection and analysis, are likely to be particularly interested in the implications of OpenTelemetry for their work.

In addition to its technical implications, the migration to OpenTelemetry also has broader policy implications, particularly in the context of regulatory frameworks governing data collection and analysis. As companies like Atlassian continue to grow and expand their operations, policymakers will need to adapt their regulatory approaches to address the challenges posed by these new technologies.