Rethinking observability for strategic clarity

Legacy observability tools, designed for static environments and manageable data, are buckling under the weight of today’s dynamic infrastructures. Those holding on to the traditional ‘collect everything’ mentality are paying the price with runaway costs, spiralling complexity, and critical blind spots. What once felt like a safety net has morphed into a data landfill, drowning teams in noise, causing delayed responses and professional burnout.

 

 

The broken promise of “more data”

More data used to mean more control. This advice made sense when infrastructure was static and applications evolved slowly. Capturing everything typically delivered the insights teams needed because the volume of data was still manageable. However, the rise of cloud technology introduced ephemeral environments and accelerated the pace of telemetry growth. Yet many teams still cling to the old strategy, even as it drags them down.

 

The tools that once brought stability are falling behind because they weren’t built for today’s level of scale or complexity. They’ve become rigid, noisy, and expensive, and the cracks are starting to show in the form of system downtime, IT outages, and crashing websites. In sectors like aviation, even brief outages can result in millions of dollars in losses within minutes. Elsewhere, the fallout is just as real: frustrated customers, eroded trust, and reputational damage.

 

The concerning reality that their observability stack is no longer fit for purpose is becoming apparent to many businesses. Teams are overwhelmed with cluttered dashboards and excess notifications, making it difficult to distinguish important alerts from irrelevant ones.

 

In turn, systems send out constant alarms, so serious problems fall between the cracks. This overload of alerts puts extra strain on internal teams. Every context switch, false alarm, and meaning-seeking activity depletes an engineer’s productivity time and mental energy, imposing a hefty distraction tax.

 

This chaos eventually leads to a dependence on the tribal wisdom of a select group of seasoned ‘heroes’ who are aware of the burial sites, swooping in for late-night rescues and endless system support. However, time spent putting out fires has a high cost. It takes the engineer’s time away from developing new features and improving the system because they’re busy with damage control. Not to mention the further implications on the individual and team: burnout, a lack of knowledge sharing and blocked innovation.

 

Observability should enable innovation, not stifle it. At times when engineers are drowning in data without clarity, the best they can do is react. And in fast-paced environments, companies that fail to move past constant fire-fighting mode will find themselves falling behind.

 

 

Reimagining observability

While many might go on the hunt for new tools, solving this problem calls for a new IT strategy. A solid observability plan that is tailored to the current IT infrastructure of the business can improve customer satisfaction, enhance employee productivity and boost conversion rates and revenue. It provides clear insights into the performance of the company’s digital investments by revealing feature adoption trends, capacity and scaling gaps, as well as release quality and velocity issues.

 

A well-defined telemetry collection approach is essential to reduce the effects of operational burden. Clearly laid out service level objectives (SLOs) and error budgets serve as the foundation for this process, establishing a benchmark for company goals and values.

 

Strategy alignment guarantees that an organisation’s observability plan only displays relevant data that supports the measurement of the wider business plan and cuts out the meaningless noise. This way, teams can confidently invest in features, optimise performance, and scale systems without getting lost in the data deluge.

 

If observability is viewed as an afterthought or as a separate issue, then even the best telemetry plan will fall short. Successful companies make it a shared responsibility instead, incorporating observability into team norms, procedures, and incentives.

 

This might seem like a monumental task, but like with any gradual transition, taking the first step is the hardest. Companies looking to reimagine their observability practices should first provide training for each engineer on their team to ensure confidence over reading, evaluating, and acting upon data.

 

Then, as teams begin to implement observability techniques, such as organisational change management (OCM), they will shift from reacting to issues to driving proactive, data-driven improvements. Observability turns into a force for creativity and resilience when it permeates every aspect of software development and operation.

 

When done right, observability becomes a competitive advantage. Teams that treat it as a strategic utility will outpace those stuck in reactive firefighting. Now is the time to consider your observability strategy: invest in disciplined telemetry, align it with clear objectives and foster a culture of shared responsibility.

 

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Riley Peronto is senior product marketing manager at Chronosphere

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and gorodenkoff