Centering Reliability in Transitional Enterprises: A Comprehensive Study of Site Reliability Engineering, Observability, and Distributed Tracing in Legacy Retail Systems

Abstract

The accelerating digitization of retail enterprises has exposed the fragility of legacy infrastructure architectures that were not originally designed to support continuous availability, elastic scalability, or real-time observability. As retailers increasingly rely on complex, distributed, and cloud-integrated systems to deliver omnichannel experiences, the operational risks associated with system outages, performance degradation, and opaque failure modes have intensified. This research article offers a comprehensive, theoretically grounded, and empirically informed examination of the implementation of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles within legacy retail infrastructure environments. Drawing extensively on contemporary scholarship in distributed systems observability, telemetry, and reliability engineering, this study situates SRE not merely as a technical discipline but as an organizational and epistemological transformation that reshapes how reliability, risk, and system knowledge are constructed and managed.

The article critically engages with foundational SRE frameworks articulated in large-scale internet firms while interrogating their applicability to retail contexts characterized by monolithic architectures, heterogeneous vendor ecosystems, and deeply entrenched operational cultures. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of observability and distributed tracing as enabling mechanisms that render legacy systems legible, diagnosable, and governable under reliability-oriented paradigms. Through a qualitative synthesis of prior empirical studies, industry forecasts,

and engineering theory, the research identifies key patterns, constraints, and adaptive strategies that emerge when SRE practices intersect with legacy retail systems.

The findings suggest that successful SRE adoption in retail environments hinges less on wholesale technological replacement and more on incremental epistemic reconfiguration, wherein telemetry, error budgeting, and reliability objectives are progressively layered onto existing systems. The study also highlights persistent tensions between standardization and contextual adaptation, as well as between automation and human judgment. By articulating these dynamics, the article contributes to both academic discourse and practitioner understanding, offering a nuanced roadmap for integrating SRE into legacy retail infrastructures while acknowledging structural limitations and future research imperatives.