---
title: "The observability hierarchy | Grafana Labs"
description: "Understanding where sending data fits in your observability journey"
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

## The observability hierarchy

**Observability builds in layers**

Sending data from external collectors gives you Level 1 (infrastructure visibility).

> You can’t troubleshoot services if you don’t know your infrastructure is healthy. Getting your data into Grafana Cloud builds that foundation.

[Hierarchy of Observability Needs](https://grafana.com/media/docs/learning-hub/instrumentation-hub-hierarchy-of-needs.png "Hierarchy of Observability Needs")

| Level       | Focus          | Question answered               |
|-------------|----------------|---------------------------------|
| **Level 1** | Infrastructure | “Is my server healthy?”         |
| **Level 2** | Services       | “Which service is the problem?” |
| **Level 3** | Transactions   | “Why is this request slow?”     |
| **Level 4** | Custom logic   | “What’s happening in my code?”  |