Metrics in Distributed Systems Monitoring Metrics change over time and, at any particular time, indicate the current state of a system. For example, you can determine whether everything is good with your computer by checking the processor load level, the amount of memory, and the used disk space. Also, for example, a graph that identifies numbers of business operations describes the system from a particular angle and helps you understand whether the system is doing what is expected of it. You can use metrics to answer questions about monitoring in general and distributed systems in particular, provided that the correct metrics are used. However, it is not always clear what metric should be used or how or when a particular metric should be used. The use of multiple metrics can produce a multitude of data, which can be interpreted in multiple ways. So, sometimes, the use of metrics increases the complexity of a task.