Observability 2.0: Gaining Deep Insights with eBPF

Until now, monitoring was often a compromise: Those who wanted to know exactly what was happening in their applications had to install “agents” or instrument the code with libraries (SDKs). This costs performance, makes the containers heavier, and annoys developers.

By 2026, eBPF has established itself as the standard that solves this problem. eBPF allows us to run programs directly in the Linux kernel—securely, efficiently, and completely transparently to the application. It’s like having an X-ray machine for our entire cluster.

What is eBPF?

Think of eBPF as a virtual machine sitting right at the heart of the operating system (the kernel). Instead of asking the application, “How are you doing?”, eBPF directly observes the system calls (syscalls). Since every application must communicate with the kernel to read files, send network requests, or use memory, eBPF misses absolutely nothing.

The Three Superpowers of eBPF:

1. Zero-Instrumentation: You don’t have to change a single line of code or add a sidecar container. eBPF sees everything from “below” the operating system.
2. Minimal Overhead: Since the analysis takes place directly in the kernel, it is many times more performant than traditional monitoring agents that constantly shuttle data between the kernel and user space.
3. Deep Connectivity: eBPF not only understands that data is flowing, but also what is flowing (e.g., HTTP headers or SQL queries), even if the application communicates encrypted.

The Tools of the Revolution: Cilium, Pixie & Hubble

The raw eBPF technology is complex, but in the Kubernetes ecosystem, there are fantastic tools that make it usable:

• Cilium: Originally started as a network layer (CNI), Cilium is now the Swiss Army knife for security and observability. It replaces traditional firewalls with intelligent, identity-based filtering.
• Hubble: The graphical interface for Cilium. It shows you in real-time which service is talking to whom, where packets are lost, and what the latencies are—graphically prepared as a service map.
• Pixie: An open-source tool that uses eBPF to provide instant debug data. With a click, you see CPU profiles, SQL queries, and inbound requests without ever writing a single line of monitoring code.

Why SMEs Will Love eBPF

For IT teams in SMEs, eBPF means above all: Less Friction.

• Security Without a Drag: You can precisely define that a pod may only talk to the database—and eBPF enforces this at the kernel level without slowing down the network.
• Troubleshooting in Seconds: If an application is slow, eBPF immediately shows whether it’s due to the database, the network, or the code itself.
• Legacy Support: Even old monoliths (see our topic 6), which no one wants to touch anymore, suddenly become fully visible and monitorable through eBPF.

Conclusion: The Aesthetics of Invisibility

Observability 2.0 means that monitoring is no longer an obstacle to development but an invisible infrastructure service. With eBPF-based tools like Cilium, we gain transparency and security that were unthinkable a few years ago. It’s time to retire the heavy agents.

Technical FAQ: eBPF & Observability

Does eBPF replace tools like Prometheus or Grafana? No. eBPF is a technology for gathering data. Prometheus continues to serve for storage and Grafana for visualization. However, eBPF tools like Cilium provide far more detailed metrics to these systems than traditional exporters could.

Is eBPF safe? Can these kernel programs crash my system? No. eBPF programs must pass a strict “verifier” in the kernel. If a program contains infinite loops or tries to access unauthorized memory, it is rejected by the kernel before it runs.

Does eBPF work on every cloud node? Almost all modern Linux distributions (from kernel 4.18, ideally 5.x+) support eBPF. In the major managed Kubernetes offerings (EKS, AKS, GKE), eBPF support is now standard.