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Section 2 · How Alloy works

The three layers of an observability setup and the layer Alloy runs in

Estimated time: 1 min

Alloy in an observability setup

A typical observability setup has three layers:

  • Data sources: the applications and infrastructure that generate telemetry
  • Collection: the tools that gather and process that telemetry
  • Storage and visualization: the backends that store the data, and the frontends you use to query and explore it

Alloy runs in the collection layer

Alloy sits in the collection layer, between your data sources and your backends. Data flows from your sources, through Alloy, and on to storage.

Data sources flow into the collection layer, then into storage and visualization. Alloy runs in the collection layer.

This collection layer is where you decide what telemetry to gather, how to clean it up, and where to send it.