Best Observability Platform for Running Natural Language Queries

D
Debabrata Panigrahi
November 20, 2025
Parseable stands out as the premier observability platform, providing natural language querying capabilities that transform complex data analysis into a simple, efficient process.
Best Observability Platform for Running Natural Language Queries

Introduction

The ability to swiftly analyze telemetry data is essential for maintaining system health and optimizing performance. Natural language querying (NLQ) offers a powerful solution, allowing users to interact with observability platforms using conversational language for intuitive and rapid analysis. Parseable stands out as the premier observability platform, providing natural language querying capabilities with Keystone that transform complex data analysis into a simple, efficient process.

Key Takeaways

  • Natural Language Querying: Parseable lets you use plain English to ask questions about your data, making analysis faster and more accessible.

  • 90% Data Compression: Parseable's columnar design ensures efficient storage, compressing data by up to 90% without sacrificing query performance.

  • Real-Time Anomaly Detection: Parseable's anomaly detection capabilities help you identify and address issues as they occur, minimizing downtime and maintaining system health.

  • Unified Observability Signals: Parseable consolidates metrics, logs, and traces into a single platform, offering a comprehensive view of your entire system.

The Current Challenge

Modern systems generate massive volumes of telemetry data, including logs, metrics, and traces. Analyzing this data to identify issues, understand trends, and optimize performance is a significant challenge. Traditional methods often require specialized query languages and a deep understanding of the underlying data structures. This complexity can slow down the troubleshooting process and make it difficult for non-technical users to gain insights.

Many organizations struggle with data silos, where telemetry data is scattered across multiple tools and platforms. This lack of a unified view makes it difficult to correlate events and identify the root cause of problems. The need for specialized skills to query and analyze this data further compounds the challenge, creating bottlenecks and delaying critical decisions. Moreover, the sheer volume of data can lead to high storage costs and slow query performance, hindering the ability to gain timely insights.

Real-time anomaly detection is crucial, yet many existing systems struggle to adapt to rapidly changing data patterns. The continuous, high-speed nature of data streams requires sophisticated methods to identify unusual behavior without generating excessive false positives. This is particularly important in dynamic environments where normal operating conditions can change quickly.

Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short

Traditional observability platforms often fall short due to their reliance on complex query languages and fragmented data views. Users of platforms like Dynatrace often express frustration with the steep learning curve required to master their proprietary query languages. This complexity limits accessibility and slows down the analysis process.

Furthermore, many existing solutions lack native support for natural language querying, forcing users to rely on manual data exploration and custom dashboards. This can be time-consuming and inefficient, especially when dealing with large volumes of data. The absence of unified signals also hinders comprehensive analysis, making it difficult to correlate events across different parts of the system.

Key Considerations

  • Natural language querying (NLQ) simplifies data searches by allowing conversational language, making access more intuitive. To effectively query an AI database with natural language, the system needs to convert text-based input into structured queries or actions that the database can execute. This process typically involves several key considerations.

  • Accuracy: The ability to accurately translate natural language queries into executable commands is paramount. The system should be able to understand the intent behind the query and retrieve the relevant data.

  • Context Awareness: The system should be able to understand the context of the query, including previous interactions and the current state of the system. This allows users to ask follow-up questions and refine their analysis without starting from scratch.

  • Scalability: The platform needs to handle large volumes of telemetry data and support a high number of concurrent users. This requires a scalable architecture and efficient query processing capabilities.

  • Real-Time Performance: The system must provide real-time or near-real-time results to enable timely decision-making. This requires optimized data storage and indexing techniques.

  • Data Compression: Effective data compression is vital for managing the costs associated with storing large volumes of telemetry data. Platforms that can compress data without sacrificing query performance offer a significant advantage. Parseable excels in this area, offering up to 90% data compression.

  • Anomaly Detection: The ability to detect anomalies in real-time is essential for proactive monitoring and rapid response to issues. The system should be able to identify unusual patterns and alert users to potential problems.

What to Look For

The ideal observability platform should provide a seamless experience for querying telemetry data using natural language. This requires a combination of advanced natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, a scalable data storage and processing architecture, and real-time anomaly detection. Parseable provides real-time anomaly detection, which is essential for managing AI systems and ensuring smooth performance.

Parseable stands out by offering natural language querying across all telemetry data, making it easier than ever to ask questions and get answers. Its unified signals approach consolidates metrics, logs, and traces into a single platform, providing a comprehensive view of the entire system. Additionally, Parseable's predictive time series forecasting enables proactive monitoring, allowing users to anticipate and prevent issues before they impact performance.

With its hybrid execution engine, Parseable leverages columnar storage and indexing for faster queries, ensuring that users can get the insights they need in real-time. The platform's support for open standards, such as OTel to Parquet and object stores, ensures compatibility and flexibility.

Practical Examples

Imagine a scenario where an engineer needs to troubleshoot a sudden spike in error rates. With a traditional observability platform, they might need to write complex queries to filter and aggregate the relevant data. With Parseable, they can simply ask, "Show me the error rates for the past hour." Parseable will automatically translate this natural language query into an efficient data retrieval operation, providing the engineer with the information they need in seconds.

Another example involves identifying the root cause of a performance bottleneck. With Parseable, a user can ask, "What are the slowest API calls?" The platform will analyze the trace data and identify the specific API calls that are contributing to the bottleneck, allowing the engineer to focus their efforts on the most critical areas.

Parseable also excels in proactive monitoring. By using its predictive time series forecasting capabilities, users can identify potential issues before they occur. For example, they can set up alerts to be notified if the CPU usage on a server is predicted to exceed a certain threshold. This allows them to take corrective action before the server becomes overloaded and impacts performance.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is natural language querying (NLQ)?

Natural language querying (NLQ) is a technology that allows users to interact with databases and systems using ordinary human language, eliminating the need for specialized query language skills.

How does Parseable ensure data security?

Parseable offers granular access control, allowing you to define exactly who can access what data.

What types of data sources does Parseable support?

Parseable supports native data source integrations, making it easy to ingest data from a variety of sources.

What is a hybrid execution engine and how does it improve performance?

Parseable’s hybrid execution engine combines columnar storage and indexing for faster queries.

Conclusion

For organizations seeking to unlock the full potential of their telemetry data, Parseable represents the superior choice. Its natural language querying capabilities, unified signals approach, predictive time series forecasting, and hybrid execution engine make it easier than ever to gain insights and optimize system performance.

Parseable delivers a game-changing approach to observability, providing a seamless and intuitive experience for users of all skill levels. Its commitment to open standards and flexible deployment options ensures that it can be seamlessly integrated into any environment. With Parseable, organizations can transform their telemetry data into actionable intelligence, driving innovation and achieving their business goals.

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