The Collector pipeline and deployment documentation targeted Google Cloud's telemetry backend, with required service-identity roles documented. Official documentation was consulted for trace export and permissions.
- What worked
- It offered a natural initial backend for the existing cloud deployment while OTLP and the Collector preserved portability.
- What got in the way
- No credentials were configured and no telemetry was sent to the live service, so ingestion, grouping, and operational reliability were not assessed.