The text discusses IBM Instana's challenge in monitoring the performance of its ClickHouse database without adding complexity or slowing it down. To address this issue, the team built a custom span exporter using OpenTelemetry, which captures and analyzes telemetry data from ClickHouse operations. The exporter is designed to be efficient, non-invasive, and easy to configure, with features such as automatic reconfiguration, preprocessing of spans, and support for metrics and profiling. By integrating the custom span exporter into its architecture, Instana can now monitor ClickHouse's performance in real-time without disrupting its role as a foundation for observability, providing better insights for DevOps teams and customers alike.