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Majority of Organizations Cannot Realize Full Potential of Observability

Although 78% of organizations surveyed have an observability practice in place, 91% said they face challenges that prevent them from realizing the full potential of the systems they have already deployed, according to Observability and Demystifying AIOps, a report from Chronosphere and the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG).

Scalability and reliability of the observability tools were cited as the top concerns.

Additional survey findings include:

Observability tool sprawl is expanding

A majority of organizations reported at least 6 different tools in use, with more than half (52%) using 11-20 different tools. The report also shows that 72% of organizations agree that the number of tools they use adds complexity.

Explosive observability data growth

Additionally, 69% of survey respondents reported that the most costly line item for most observability solutions, data storage, is growing. Respondents stated that "the amount of observability data is growing at a concerning rate" and one in five respondents reported that this explosive data growth was their top concern.

To address data growth, organizations are taking a mix of steps to rein in costs, including:

■ increasing storage spend (52%)

■ limiting the number of observed applications in their environment (44%)

■ limiting the number of observed metrics per application (43%).

Cloud is greatest Observability challenge

Many respondents also noted that applications deployed in the cloud were harder for them to monitor and few of them felt that their observability solution was helping them meet their availability goals.

When asked about their biggest observability challenges, 60% agreed that "Lack of visibility into our cloud applications makes achieving SLAs a challenge," and only 20% chose "Improved SLA Performance" as one of their monitoring/observability strategy's most impactful benefits.

Methodology: TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) surveyed 374 IT (58%) and DevOps/AppDev (42%) professionals responsible for evaluating, purchasing, managing, and using observability at large midmarket (500 to 999 employees) (11%) and enterprise (1,000+ employees) (89%) organizations in North America (US and Canada).

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Majority of Organizations Cannot Realize Full Potential of Observability

Although 78% of organizations surveyed have an observability practice in place, 91% said they face challenges that prevent them from realizing the full potential of the systems they have already deployed, according to Observability and Demystifying AIOps, a report from Chronosphere and the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG).

Scalability and reliability of the observability tools were cited as the top concerns.

Additional survey findings include:

Observability tool sprawl is expanding

A majority of organizations reported at least 6 different tools in use, with more than half (52%) using 11-20 different tools. The report also shows that 72% of organizations agree that the number of tools they use adds complexity.

Explosive observability data growth

Additionally, 69% of survey respondents reported that the most costly line item for most observability solutions, data storage, is growing. Respondents stated that "the amount of observability data is growing at a concerning rate" and one in five respondents reported that this explosive data growth was their top concern.

To address data growth, organizations are taking a mix of steps to rein in costs, including:

■ increasing storage spend (52%)

■ limiting the number of observed applications in their environment (44%)

■ limiting the number of observed metrics per application (43%).

Cloud is greatest Observability challenge

Many respondents also noted that applications deployed in the cloud were harder for them to monitor and few of them felt that their observability solution was helping them meet their availability goals.

When asked about their biggest observability challenges, 60% agreed that "Lack of visibility into our cloud applications makes achieving SLAs a challenge," and only 20% chose "Improved SLA Performance" as one of their monitoring/observability strategy's most impactful benefits.

Methodology: TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) surveyed 374 IT (58%) and DevOps/AppDev (42%) professionals responsible for evaluating, purchasing, managing, and using observability at large midmarket (500 to 999 employees) (11%) and enterprise (1,000+ employees) (89%) organizations in North America (US and Canada).

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E-commerce is set to skyrocket with a 9% rise over the next few years ... To thrive in this competitive environment, retailers must identify digital resilience as their top priority. In a world where savvy shoppers expect 24/7 access to online deals and experiences, any unexpected downtime to digital services can lead to significant financial losses, damage to brand reputation, abandoned carts with designer shoes, and additional issues ...

Efficiency is a highly-desirable objective in business ... We're seeing this scenario play out in enterprises around the world as they continue to struggle with infrastructures and remote work models with an eye toward operational efficiencies. In contrast to that goal, a recent Broadcom survey of global IT and network professionals found widespread adoption of these strategies is making the network more complex and hampering observability, leading to uptime, performance and security issues. Let's look more closely at these challenges ...

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The pressure on IT teams has never been greater. As data environments grow increasingly complex, resource shortages are emerging as a major obstacle for IT leaders striving to meet the demands of modern infrastructure management ... According to DataStrike's newly released 2025 Data Infrastructure Survey Report, more than half (54%) of IT leaders cite resource limitations as a top challenge, highlighting a growing trend toward outsourcing as a solution ...

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Gartner revealed its top strategic predictions for 2025 and beyond. Gartner's top predictions explore how generative AI (GenAI) is affecting areas where most would assume only humans can have lasting impact ...

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Imagine a future where software, once a complex obstacle, becomes a natural extension of daily workflow — an intuitive, seamless experience that maximizes productivity and efficiency. This future is no longer a distant vision but a reality being crafted by the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence ...

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