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The Greatest Benefit of Observability: Prioritizing and Resolving Issues Faster

The need for real-time, reliable data is increasing, and that data is a necessity to remain competitive in today's business landscape. At the same time, observability has become even more critical with the complexity of a hybrid multi-cloud environment.

"In today's complex hybrid multi-cloud environment, CIOs understand that monitoring of logs, metrics, and traces is no longer sufficient," said Will Schoeppner, Research Director covering application performance management and business intelligence at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and author of the a new research report, Driving Observability Through Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics. "Organizations require an observability solution that will provide crucial visibility into the health and performance of the environment and enable predictive solutioning and remediation of critical events prior to impacting customer performance."

To add to the challenges and complexity, the term "observability" has not been clearly defined and can be broad in context. Across the industry, a commonality is that the reach of observability extends well beyond simply the collection of logs, metrics, and traces. Unified observability brings infrastructure monitoring, security, logs, application performance monitoring, and SaaS monitoring into a single platform for complete end-to-end visibility for cross-functional teams, driving streamlined collaboration and faster resolution of issues. Based on this definition, EMA's research explores challenges technology teams face in a complex landscape and how the benefits of observability can have an impact on driving business outcomes and customer success.

This study explored the rapid growth of observability and its critical importance in an organization. It also evaluated how observability that provides predictive analytics developed using machine learning models can make the difference in delivering customer expectations, reducing technology resource cost, and eliminating fatigue within an organization's technology teams.

The research delivered several fascinating key findings detailed throughout the report. Some of these key findings are:

■ 73% of companies indicated they have been data-driven in their decision-making process for three years or more.

■ Only 27% of organizations use the same solution for observability across all IT software development functions.

■ 71% of companies indicated they have been mature in the use of analytics and the use of machine learning in observability for three years or more. However, only 54% of organizations believe their maturity in analytics and the use of machine learning in observability is advanced or superior.

According to respondents, the greatest benefit of observability is being able to prioritize and resolve issues faster, followed by being able to proactively detect issues.

The EMA report was sponsored by Elastic.

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The Greatest Benefit of Observability: Prioritizing and Resolving Issues Faster

The need for real-time, reliable data is increasing, and that data is a necessity to remain competitive in today's business landscape. At the same time, observability has become even more critical with the complexity of a hybrid multi-cloud environment.

"In today's complex hybrid multi-cloud environment, CIOs understand that monitoring of logs, metrics, and traces is no longer sufficient," said Will Schoeppner, Research Director covering application performance management and business intelligence at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and author of the a new research report, Driving Observability Through Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics. "Organizations require an observability solution that will provide crucial visibility into the health and performance of the environment and enable predictive solutioning and remediation of critical events prior to impacting customer performance."

To add to the challenges and complexity, the term "observability" has not been clearly defined and can be broad in context. Across the industry, a commonality is that the reach of observability extends well beyond simply the collection of logs, metrics, and traces. Unified observability brings infrastructure monitoring, security, logs, application performance monitoring, and SaaS monitoring into a single platform for complete end-to-end visibility for cross-functional teams, driving streamlined collaboration and faster resolution of issues. Based on this definition, EMA's research explores challenges technology teams face in a complex landscape and how the benefits of observability can have an impact on driving business outcomes and customer success.

This study explored the rapid growth of observability and its critical importance in an organization. It also evaluated how observability that provides predictive analytics developed using machine learning models can make the difference in delivering customer expectations, reducing technology resource cost, and eliminating fatigue within an organization's technology teams.

The research delivered several fascinating key findings detailed throughout the report. Some of these key findings are:

■ 73% of companies indicated they have been data-driven in their decision-making process for three years or more.

■ Only 27% of organizations use the same solution for observability across all IT software development functions.

■ 71% of companies indicated they have been mature in the use of analytics and the use of machine learning in observability for three years or more. However, only 54% of organizations believe their maturity in analytics and the use of machine learning in observability is advanced or superior.

According to respondents, the greatest benefit of observability is being able to prioritize and resolve issues faster, followed by being able to proactively detect issues.

The EMA report was sponsored by Elastic.

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...