Apache Kafka is an open-source distributed streaming system that has gained popularity and usage across the technology industry. It provides a robust and scalable platform with a dual-layer architecture, enabling efficient real-time data ingestion. Kafka's adaptability is driven by its open-source nature, allowing developers to modify and expand upon its original design. The system's ability to handle massive data streams in real-time positions it as an indispensable tool for application deployments. Monitoring Kafka clusters is crucial to maintain high availability, identify issues before they impact operations, optimize performance and cost, and meet compliance requirements. Key metrics for monitoring Kafka include broker metrics such as replicated byte rate, produced and consumed byte rate, CPU, memory, and disk I/O usage; topic metrics like number of messages produced/consumed, replication factor, and under-replicated partitions; producer metrics including number of messages produced, producer latency, and producer retries; and consumer metrics like number of messages consumed, consumer latency, and lag. Strategies for Kafka monitoring include using Lumigo's 1-click OpenTelemetry deployment, which provides an effortless path to detailed insights into Kafka operations without requiring code modifications. This approach offers enhanced visibility, proactive alerts, and improved scalability and capacity planning capabilities.