Observability is key, as technologists face onslaught of data noise and spiralling complexity
The global pandemic has been felt across every industry in a way that no-one could have predicted – bank branches closed, shopping for groceries meant exposure some could not risk, children swapped classrooms for screens at home, and many employees were told to work from home. These changes created an urgency around digital transformation never seen before - it found its way to the top of the agenda in every boardroom and executive leadership meeting around the world, with timelines and expectations for implementing technology initiatives increasing dramatically.
Organisations had no choice but to pivot their business strategy to respond to the pandemic, and in 2020, global technologists took centre stage, delivering digital transformation projects faster than ever before. But that level of innovation has brought with it new challenges. IT teams are reporting crippling complexity across their IT infrastructure, caused by urgent innovation and technology sprawl across on premise and cloud architectures.
IT leaders are urgently looking to new technologies which will give them the visibility they need across their IT estate to tackle these critical and complex challenges. Increasingly, full-stack observability - the ability to monitor the entire IT stack, from customer-facing applications down to core network and infrastructure - is seen as the solution. However, technologists beginning their journey to full-stack observability should take caution. While visibility across the entire IT stack might seem like the answer, it will only succeed when IT teams can connect IT performance to business impact. Failure to achieve this correlation could have significant negative consequences for organisations sooner than they realise.
Conquering complexity
Timelines for what used to be lengthy IT project rollouts were delivered in a fraction of the time last year. According to the latest AppDynamics report, ‘Agents of Transformation 2021: The Rise of Full-Stack Observability,’ technologists implemented digital transformation projects three times faster in 2020 than in any previous year. This statistic will perhaps come as little surprise to those who have found themselves at the sharp end of their organisation's response to the pandemic. And the urgency to perform has been intense, with 89 percent of global technologists reporting feeling under immense pressure at work.
It’s no understatement to say that the actions of global IT teams were pivotal in the survival of many enterprises in 2020, but technologists now find themselves facing a new set of priorities and challenges. The Agents of Transformation 2021 report of over 1000 global technologists found that 75 percent of technologists claim that their response to the pandemic has created more IT complexity than they have ever experienced. This number jumped nearly 10 points to 84 percent in India.
Many technologists fast-tracked the move towards cloud computing in order to respond to the changing needs of their organisation. But now they face the challenge of controlling systems both within and outside of the core IT estate. The end result is huge numbers of technologists (75 percent) struggling to manage overwhelming ‘data noise’, without the resources and support they need.
The race to full-stack observability
It’s clear that in an increasingly data-driven environment, the idea of trusting instinct alone is out-dated and a recipe for failure. Three-quarters of technologists (76 percent) acknowledge that they can no longer afford to rely on gut instinct with technology performance when confronted with these heightened levels of complexity.
To get a handle on this, 95 percent of technologists agree that having real-time visibility across the entire IT estate is critical. They appreciate the usefulness of having a single, unified observability platform to monitor and manage the full technology stack, instead of multiple, disjointed monitoring solutions.
It’s no surprise then that full-stack observability is racing up the priority list for IT leaders across the world.
Full-stack observability solutions give technologists the ability to connect the dots up and down the stack — from the customer or employee-facing application, all the way down to the lowest level infrastructure (compute, storage, network and public internet). But with complexity levels and data noise spiralling out of control, is it enough to just have visibility? Sure, IT teams are in a much better place if they see what’s happening across their whole technology environment, but what comes next? How do they use this data to prioritise actions and make the best decisions for their organization?
Observe what matters
On its own, basic full-stack observability is just not enough - business context is critical. The solution lies in having the ability to directly correlate the technology performance of the IT stack with business transactions and outcomes.
Only by tying IT issues to tangible business outcomes such as customer experience, sales transactions and revenue can technologists prioritise decision-making and actions based on what really matters to the business. And IT leaders agree - 96% of technologists recognise that having the ability to monitor all technical areas across their IT stack and directly link technical performance to business outcomes will be important during 2021.
But the clock is ticking. 75 percent of technologists believe that this technology needs to be implemented within 12 months to remain competitive. Worryingly, while many agree that combining full-stack observability with business insights is important, 66% admit that they don’t currently have a solution in place.
Time to shine
With the dramatic changes in the business environment, the acceleration of digital transformation, and customer and employee digital expectations at an all-time high, technologists need solutions that cut through data noise to quickly identify the root cause of performance issues across their digital properties and prioritise based on the business needs. Realising the potential of full-stack observability must now be a priority.
2021 will be another defining year for IT leaders professionally and personally. But by observing what matters and truly connecting IT performance to business outcomes, technologists can elevate their performance to a higher level and put themselves ahead of the pack.
Organisations had no choice but to pivot their business strategy to respond to the pandemic, and in 2020, global technologists took centre stage, delivering digital transformation projects faster than ever before. But that level of innovation has brought with it new challenges. IT teams are reporting crippling complexity across their IT infrastructure, caused by urgent innovation and technology sprawl across on premise and cloud architectures.
IT leaders are urgently looking to new technologies which will give them the visibility they need across their IT estate to tackle these critical and complex challenges. Increasingly, full-stack observability - the ability to monitor the entire IT stack, from customer-facing applications down to core network and infrastructure - is seen as the solution. However, technologists beginning their journey to full-stack observability should take caution. While visibility across the entire IT stack might seem like the answer, it will only succeed when IT teams can connect IT performance to business impact. Failure to achieve this correlation could have significant negative consequences for organisations sooner than they realise.
Conquering complexity
Timelines for what used to be lengthy IT project rollouts were delivered in a fraction of the time last year. According to the latest AppDynamics report, ‘Agents of Transformation 2021: The Rise of Full-Stack Observability,’ technologists implemented digital transformation projects three times faster in 2020 than in any previous year. This statistic will perhaps come as little surprise to those who have found themselves at the sharp end of their organisation's response to the pandemic. And the urgency to perform has been intense, with 89 percent of global technologists reporting feeling under immense pressure at work.
It’s no understatement to say that the actions of global IT teams were pivotal in the survival of many enterprises in 2020, but technologists now find themselves facing a new set of priorities and challenges. The Agents of Transformation 2021 report of over 1000 global technologists found that 75 percent of technologists claim that their response to the pandemic has created more IT complexity than they have ever experienced. This number jumped nearly 10 points to 84 percent in India.
Many technologists fast-tracked the move towards cloud computing in order to respond to the changing needs of their organisation. But now they face the challenge of controlling systems both within and outside of the core IT estate. The end result is huge numbers of technologists (75 percent) struggling to manage overwhelming ‘data noise’, without the resources and support they need.
The race to full-stack observability
It’s clear that in an increasingly data-driven environment, the idea of trusting instinct alone is out-dated and a recipe for failure. Three-quarters of technologists (76 percent) acknowledge that they can no longer afford to rely on gut instinct with technology performance when confronted with these heightened levels of complexity.
To get a handle on this, 95 percent of technologists agree that having real-time visibility across the entire IT estate is critical. They appreciate the usefulness of having a single, unified observability platform to monitor and manage the full technology stack, instead of multiple, disjointed monitoring solutions.
It’s no surprise then that full-stack observability is racing up the priority list for IT leaders across the world.
Full-stack observability solutions give technologists the ability to connect the dots up and down the stack — from the customer or employee-facing application, all the way down to the lowest level infrastructure (compute, storage, network and public internet). But with complexity levels and data noise spiralling out of control, is it enough to just have visibility? Sure, IT teams are in a much better place if they see what’s happening across their whole technology environment, but what comes next? How do they use this data to prioritise actions and make the best decisions for their organization?
Observe what matters
On its own, basic full-stack observability is just not enough - business context is critical. The solution lies in having the ability to directly correlate the technology performance of the IT stack with business transactions and outcomes.
Only by tying IT issues to tangible business outcomes such as customer experience, sales transactions and revenue can technologists prioritise decision-making and actions based on what really matters to the business. And IT leaders agree - 96% of technologists recognise that having the ability to monitor all technical areas across their IT stack and directly link technical performance to business outcomes will be important during 2021.
But the clock is ticking. 75 percent of technologists believe that this technology needs to be implemented within 12 months to remain competitive. Worryingly, while many agree that combining full-stack observability with business insights is important, 66% admit that they don’t currently have a solution in place.
Time to shine
With the dramatic changes in the business environment, the acceleration of digital transformation, and customer and employee digital expectations at an all-time high, technologists need solutions that cut through data noise to quickly identify the root cause of performance issues across their digital properties and prioritise based on the business needs. Realising the potential of full-stack observability must now be a priority.
2021 will be another defining year for IT leaders professionally and personally. But by observing what matters and truly connecting IT performance to business outcomes, technologists can elevate their performance to a higher level and put themselves ahead of the pack.
