Sensor now links slow requests to the SQL behind them and adds Kubernetes and cloud context to third-party telemetry

groundcover, the world’s leading bring-your-own-cloud (BYOC), eBPF and OpenTelemetry (OTel)-native observability platform, today announced a major expansion of its eBPF sensor, the component that runs in every Kubernetes cluster and collects telemetry without code changes. The sensor now ties application requests to the SQL queries they execute and adds support for ClickHouse and SIP protocols. It also stamps Kubernetes workload, namespace, cloud region and zone onto the telemetry it collects, including metrics and logs from third-party tools, while a new Crossplane provider lets platform teams manage groundcover as Kubernetes custom resources.

As Kubernetes environments grow to host more services and AI workloads, every addition brings more instrumentation work. Much of the resulting telemetry arrives without the context needed to correlate it. A latency spike in one tool and an error log in another may describe the same incident, but nothing connects them to the workload that caused it. Managed platforms and locked-down networks add another obstacle by restricting the privileged agents that deep observability depends on.

"Most observability tools make you choose between depth and reach," said Shahar Azulay, CEO and co-founder of groundcover. "Our sensor removes that tradeoff—it sees the query behind a slow request, runs in clusters that block most agents and puts Kubernetes context on data from the tools teams are using. You get one connected picture of production, without anyone writing instrumentation code."

When a request slows down, the groundcover sensor now links its span to the exact SQL query behind it. Engineers can see whether the database caused the delay without adding SDKs or database client libraries.

The release also adds:

• ClickHouse and SIP protocol parsing, extending zero-instrumentation coverage to analytics databases and VoIP signaling traffic
• Kafka in the workload APIs view
• Azure OpenAI detection, including time to first token for AI workloads
• A host metric that tracks processes blocked on I/O

Kubernetes and Cloud Context on Every Signal

The sensor tags data with workload, namespace, region and zone at the point of collection, so correlation doesn't depend on manual labeling after the fact. Cloud region and zone now appear on all telemetry, and custom resource definition (CRD) workloads can be tracked through an allowlist.

The same context now extends to telemetry that groundcover doesn't generate itself. Third-party metrics and Fluent Bit logs pick up workload and namespace labels as they arrive. StatsD ingestion is on by default, DogStatsD host labels and Datadog distribution sketches are supported, and teams running OpenTelemetry-only deployments get full APM. Teams can consolidate onto groundcover without ripping out instrumentation they've already built.

Runs in Managed and Locked-Down Clusters

groundcover became an approved Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Autopilot partner workload in September. That gives teams full eBPF observability on Google's fully managed Kubernetes platform, which restricts privileged workloads to those allowlisted through Google Cloud's partner program. The sensor now also routes outbound traffic through an HTTP proxy for proxy-only networks. It supports CSI-mounted TLS certificates, ships as a public container image and can reference existing Kubernetes secrets instead of requiring new ones.

The new groundcover Crossplane provider lets teams define groundcover configuration as Kubernetes custom resources and manage it through the same GitOps workflows they use for the rest of their stack. gcQL entity search lets engineers query any Kubernetes object directly from groundcover.

Availability

All capabilities are available now to groundcover customers. Attendees at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2026 can see the expanded sensor at groundcover booth No. 111. To book a demo, visit https://www.groundcover.com/events/kubecon-na-2026#join-the-party.

About groundcover

groundcover is the full-stack observability platform for engineers & agents, allowing teams to monitor everything they run in their cloud, without compromising on data, control, or cost. It’s deployed inside the customer’s cloud premises and provides complete visibility into applications, infrastructure, and AI workloads without operational overhead. The platform offers unlimited data coverage at a fraction of the cost of legacy observability tools. Founded in 2021, the company is backed by leading global investors, including One Peak, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Zeev Ventures, Angular Ventures, Heavybit and Jibe. Learn more at https://www.groundcover.com.

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"Most observability tools make you choose between depth and reach," said Shahar Azulay, CEO and co-founder of groundcover. "Our sensor removes that tradeoff, giving you one connected picture of production, without anyone writing instrumentation code."