ROSI for Decision-Makers¶
ROSI provides a concrete, deployable observability baseline while preserving freedom of choice. It is designed to reduce lock-in risk and support sustainable operations as requirements change.
This page is for engineering managers, architects, and technical leaders who need to balance delivery speed with long-term platform flexibility.
What ROSI Delivers Now¶
ROSI is not a roadmap-only idea. The current ROSI Collector stack is deployable today and provides:
Centralized collection with rsyslog
Log storage and search in a production-ready baseline
Dashboards and metrics for operational visibility
Turnkey setup that reduces early integration effort
Container-based deployment model for practical operations today
See ROSI Collector for implementation details.
Why This Matters Strategically¶
Most observability programs fail in one of two ways:
They remain fragmented and expensive to operate
They become tightly coupled to a single vendor and hard to evolve
ROSI addresses both by combining a practical default with an explicit freedom-of-choice architecture stance.
It also adds an efficiency posture that is increasingly important for both FinOps and Green IT programs.
Decision Criteria ROSI Supports¶
ROSI is a fit when you need to optimize for:
Time to value: a concrete stack that can be deployed quickly
Operational sustainability: simpler initial rollout without closing future options
Risk control: lower long-term lock-in risk through replaceable components
Growth: a path from small deployments to broader platform standardization
Efficiency: better compute economics through efficient ingestion and routing
In many environments, placing rsyslog at the edge helps control central ingest volume and therefore backend cost.
Risk Posture and Messaging¶
ROSI emphasizes architectural properties instead of vendor positioning:
Open interfaces and standards-oriented integration
Replaceable stack components
Incremental migration rather than forced rewrites
This keeps decisions grounded in sustainable operations and freedom of choice.
Scale Profile¶
ROSI is often an excellent fit for small to medium installations where efficiency is highly valued. It can also scale down effectively for homelab use, making it suitable for both evaluation and lightweight production use.
Future evolution toward Kubernetes can build on the current container-based foundation without invalidating early adoption.
Recommended Next Reading¶
ROSI for Platform Teams for architecture and adoption patterns
ROSI for Beginners for onboarding context
ROSI Collector for concrete deployment details
Support: rsyslog Assistant | GitHub Discussions | GitHub Issues: rsyslog source project
Contributing: Source & docs: rsyslog source project
© 2008–2025 Rainer Gerhards and others. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.