Observability is a crucial tool for IT, DevOps, and SecOps teams—but how is the adoption process going? SolarWinds commissioned the 2023 IT Trends: Lessons From Observability Leaders Survey to find out.
The survey, which polled 1,000 IT professionals from enterprises across the globe, aimed to learn how enterprises can best leverage advantages from their observability initiatives.
What they found is fascinating.
The typical enterprise suffers nine monthly brownouts or outages, lasting around 12 hours each. The total cost of outages and brownouts averages $13.7M.
These incidents not only affect the bottom line, but also the customer experience. That’s why 96% of respondents said their top goal for observability is to improve customer satisfaction.
However, not all enterprises are equally prepared to achieve this goal. The survey identified two groups of observability adopters: leaders and laggards.
Leaders are those who have fully embraced observability and have implemented it across their entire IT environment. Laggards are those who have not yet adopted observability or have only done so partially.
The survey revealed that leaders report doing 2.1X better with operational efficiency and 2.5X better with the speed of innovation than laggards. They also experience fewer and shorter outages and brownouts, and have higher customer satisfaction scores.
So, what are the secrets of observability leaders? How can laggards catch up and reap the benefits of observability?
The survey offers some insights and recommendations, such as:
- Investing in observability tools that provide full-stack visibility, real-time data, and intelligent alerts.
- Aligning observability goals and metrics with business outcomes and customer needs.
- Fostering a culture of collaboration and learning among IT teams and stakeholders.
- Leveraging observability data to drive continuous improvement and innovation.