Skip to main content

Organizations Struggle to Observe Their Data

Tucker Callaway
Mezmo

Enterprises today are increasingly collecting massive amounts of data to help make better-informed business decisions as fast as possible. Faced with this unprecedented volume of data, their interest in observability is soaring. In fact, Gartner declared that observability is at the "peak of inflated expectations." Enterprises are starting to shift their focus from monitoring systems to discover issues to observing systems to understand why issues occur.

Image removed.

Although observability has become essential for many organizations, 74% of enterprises struggle to achieve it, according to a LogDNA survey of engineering professionals. And lack of investment in observability tools is not the problem. Two-thirds of respondents spend $100,000 or more annually and 38% spend $300,000 or more annually, with many using more than four different tools.

Enterprises wrestle with true observability because most observability data remains dark or unexploited. The scale, complexity, variety of data consumers, and runaway costs make it difficult for enterprises to get value from their machine data. There are other technical and organizational challenges, such as data and department silos, the complexity of managing data in cloud-native and hybrid cloud environments, and the inefficiency of single-pane-of-glass approaches to route data to appropriate destinations.

Let's take a look at three of the most pervasive pain points, according to the survey, holding enterprises back from observability nirvana:

Difficulty Using Current Tools

As enterprises strive to get more value from their observability data, particularly log data, which underpins all applications and systems, one of the biggest problems is that the tools are difficult to use. Many enterprises are dissatisfied, with more than half of respondents indicating that they would like to replace their tools. They cited issues with usability (66%) and challenges with routing security events (58%). Other problems include difficulty ingesting data into a standard format (32%) and routing it into multiple tools for different use cases (30%).

Hard to Collaborate Across Teams

More than 80% of enterprises indicate that multiple stakeholders need access to the same log data. On average, more than three teams require access to this data, including development, IT operations, site reliability engineering (SRE), and security. But the tools make it hard for multiple stakeholders to extract actionable insights, with 67% of respondents saying the barriers to collaboration across teams are a problem. As a result, companies are spending more time trying to resolve issues.

Controlling Costs

Log data is critical to tracking application performance and capacity resources, advising product improvements, and discovering threats and anomalous activity. However, organizations struggle to control costs as machine data skyrockets. To reduce costs, 57% limit the amount of log data they ingest or store, which hinders troubleshooting and debugging systems and applications. And 55% limit the amount of log data they route to their SIEM, which impedes incident response efforts and increases security risk.

For too long, enterprises made tough choices about how to use all of their machine data while managing costs. Despite most observability data being kept in the dark, organizations understand the value of this data, and 85% believe true observability is possible as new technology emerges to improve ease of use and facilitate stronger cross-team collaboration within budget. One approach to this is using an observability data pipeline to centralize observability data from multiple sources, enrich it, and send it to a variety of destinations. This level of flexibility ensures that everyone can use their tools of choice and avoid costly vendor lock-in. The right tool can also put controls in place to manage spikes so that everyone in an organization has access to the data they need in real time, without impacting the budget.

Tucker Callaway is CEO of Mezmo

Hot Topics

The Latest

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 ...

Image
Broadcom

The 2025 Catchpoint SRE Report dives into the forces transforming the SRE landscape, exploring both the challenges and opportunities ahead. Let's break down the key findings and what they mean for SRE professionals and the businesses relying on them ...

Image
Catchpoint

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 ...

Image
Datastrike

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 ...

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating across the telecoms industry, with 88% of fixed broadband service providers now investigating or trialing AI automation to enhance their fixed broadband services, according to new research from Incognito Software Systems and Omdia ...

 

AWS is a cloud-based computing platform known for its reliability, scalability, and flexibility. However, as helpful as its comprehensive infrastructure is, disparate elements and numerous siloed components make it difficult for admins to visualize the cloud performance in detail. It requires meticulous monitoring techniques and deep visibility to understand cloud performance and analyze operational efficiency in detail to ensure seamless cloud operations ...

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 ...

Enterprise data sprawl already challenges companies' ability to protect and back up their data. Much of this information is never fully secured, leaving organizations vulnerable. Now, as GenAI platforms emerge as yet another environment where enterprise data is consumed, transformed, and created, this fragmentation is set to intensify ...

Image
Crashplan

OpenTelemetry (OTel) has revolutionized the way we approach observability by standardizing the collection of telemetry data ... Here are five myths — and truths — to help elevate your OTel integration by harnessing the untapped power of logs ...

Organizations Struggle to Observe Their Data

Tucker Callaway
Mezmo

Enterprises today are increasingly collecting massive amounts of data to help make better-informed business decisions as fast as possible. Faced with this unprecedented volume of data, their interest in observability is soaring. In fact, Gartner declared that observability is at the "peak of inflated expectations." Enterprises are starting to shift their focus from monitoring systems to discover issues to observing systems to understand why issues occur.

Image removed.

Although observability has become essential for many organizations, 74% of enterprises struggle to achieve it, according to a LogDNA survey of engineering professionals. And lack of investment in observability tools is not the problem. Two-thirds of respondents spend $100,000 or more annually and 38% spend $300,000 or more annually, with many using more than four different tools.

Enterprises wrestle with true observability because most observability data remains dark or unexploited. The scale, complexity, variety of data consumers, and runaway costs make it difficult for enterprises to get value from their machine data. There are other technical and organizational challenges, such as data and department silos, the complexity of managing data in cloud-native and hybrid cloud environments, and the inefficiency of single-pane-of-glass approaches to route data to appropriate destinations.

Let's take a look at three of the most pervasive pain points, according to the survey, holding enterprises back from observability nirvana:

Difficulty Using Current Tools

As enterprises strive to get more value from their observability data, particularly log data, which underpins all applications and systems, one of the biggest problems is that the tools are difficult to use. Many enterprises are dissatisfied, with more than half of respondents indicating that they would like to replace their tools. They cited issues with usability (66%) and challenges with routing security events (58%). Other problems include difficulty ingesting data into a standard format (32%) and routing it into multiple tools for different use cases (30%).

Hard to Collaborate Across Teams

More than 80% of enterprises indicate that multiple stakeholders need access to the same log data. On average, more than three teams require access to this data, including development, IT operations, site reliability engineering (SRE), and security. But the tools make it hard for multiple stakeholders to extract actionable insights, with 67% of respondents saying the barriers to collaboration across teams are a problem. As a result, companies are spending more time trying to resolve issues.

Controlling Costs

Log data is critical to tracking application performance and capacity resources, advising product improvements, and discovering threats and anomalous activity. However, organizations struggle to control costs as machine data skyrockets. To reduce costs, 57% limit the amount of log data they ingest or store, which hinders troubleshooting and debugging systems and applications. And 55% limit the amount of log data they route to their SIEM, which impedes incident response efforts and increases security risk.

For too long, enterprises made tough choices about how to use all of their machine data while managing costs. Despite most observability data being kept in the dark, organizations understand the value of this data, and 85% believe true observability is possible as new technology emerges to improve ease of use and facilitate stronger cross-team collaboration within budget. One approach to this is using an observability data pipeline to centralize observability data from multiple sources, enrich it, and send it to a variety of destinations. This level of flexibility ensures that everyone can use their tools of choice and avoid costly vendor lock-in. The right tool can also put controls in place to manage spikes so that everyone in an organization has access to the data they need in real time, without impacting the budget.

Tucker Callaway is CEO of Mezmo

Hot Topics

The Latest

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 ...

Image
Broadcom

The 2025 Catchpoint SRE Report dives into the forces transforming the SRE landscape, exploring both the challenges and opportunities ahead. Let's break down the key findings and what they mean for SRE professionals and the businesses relying on them ...

Image
Catchpoint

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 ...

Image
Datastrike

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 ...

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating across the telecoms industry, with 88% of fixed broadband service providers now investigating or trialing AI automation to enhance their fixed broadband services, according to new research from Incognito Software Systems and Omdia ...

 

AWS is a cloud-based computing platform known for its reliability, scalability, and flexibility. However, as helpful as its comprehensive infrastructure is, disparate elements and numerous siloed components make it difficult for admins to visualize the cloud performance in detail. It requires meticulous monitoring techniques and deep visibility to understand cloud performance and analyze operational efficiency in detail to ensure seamless cloud operations ...

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 ...

Enterprise data sprawl already challenges companies' ability to protect and back up their data. Much of this information is never fully secured, leaving organizations vulnerable. Now, as GenAI platforms emerge as yet another environment where enterprise data is consumed, transformed, and created, this fragmentation is set to intensify ...

Image
Crashplan

OpenTelemetry (OTel) has revolutionized the way we approach observability by standardizing the collection of telemetry data ... Here are five myths — and truths — to help elevate your OTel integration by harnessing the untapped power of logs ...