What is observability, and how has its role evolved beyond IT departments?
Observability at its core is proactive insights, automated analytics, and actionable intelligence from collected data – whether that’s real-time or historical metrics, logs, or trace data. While observability has become a cornerstone of modern IT systems, the concept itself is not new. Its roots lie in control theory, an engineering discipline focused on automating the control of dynamic systems, such as cars, airplanes, or oil pipelines.
Observability goes beyond monitoring by digging deeper into the “what” of occurrences to reveal the “why” happening behind the scenes.
Traditionally, observability has been the domain of IT departments, tasked with tracking infrastructure and application performance. But it has evolved into a strategic enabler for business resilience. In modern environments, particularly with the growth of cloud computing, microservices, and hybrid IT, observability is even more essential for managing increasingly complex systems. It is now used by developers, operations teams, and even business leaders to gather as much information on the internal state of infrastructure, applications, serverless services, middleware, and databases. This enables them to monitor and troubleshoot issues in real time, and even predict potential issues and automates responses – ensuring that technical performance aligns with organisational goals.
What role can a tool like AIOps play in enhancing employee productivity and collaboration?
By integrating AI-driven tools into IT operations, organisations can offload repetitive and time-consuming responsibilities, allowing employees to focus on higher-value, strategic work. For IT teams, AIOps solutions can automatically detect, diagnose, and resolve issues, reducing the time spent on manual troubleshooting and freeing up resources for innovation. This capability has a ripple effect across the organisation. With less time spent on firefighting, IT teams can better support other departments, improving cross-functional collaboration and aligning technology initiatives with broader business goals.
Beyond IT, the impact of AIOps extends to all employees by providing a smoother, more reliable digital workspace. Fewer disruptions and faster problem resolution mean teams can work more efficiently and with less frustration.
In what ways can observability principles contribute to creating a more authentic organisational culture?
While organisational culture varies depending on the business, adopting an observability solution enables teams to make better-informed decisions and apply their knowledge across different business areas, moving beyond traditional silos and encouraging cross-functional collaboration.
In IT alone, observability helps break down barriers between teams by reducing finger-pointing and creating a shared understanding of responsibilities. When technology highlights the root causes of issues, it eliminates disputes over accountability, fostering a culture of collaboration rather than conflict. This approach can serve as a model for the broader organisation, showing how interconnected teams can work more cohesively and productively.
The key takeaway is that observability helps teams focus on practical insights while avoiding unnecessary details. This balance promotes authenticity by aligning teams around shared goals and improving communication. Ultimately, observability can help organisations create a culture where technology unites people, enabling them to work smarter and achieve more together.
How can organisations use transparency as a low-cost but high-impact strategy for improving trust and engagement?
Transparency is a tried and tested way to enhance trust and engagement by fostering open communication with employees and customers. In fact, it’s another significant aspect of leveraging observability. For instance, insights from observability tools about the causes and mitigation of incidents—such as a cyber event—can be used to reassure customers of the organisation’s accountability and reliability. This approach helps retain loyalty and demonstrates a commitment to shared values.
Within the organisation, transparency cultivates a culture of inclusivity by aligning teams around common objectives and reducing misunderstandings. Sharing insights, challenges, and decisions openly empowers employees to contribute meaningfully and reduces friction caused by misaligned priorities. Though integrating transparency may require effort, such as overcoming budget constraints or managing change, the long-term benefits in terms of trust, morale, and customer loyalty far outweigh the initial challenges.
What are some potential obstacles to integrating observability principles into corporate culture?
One challenge in adopting observability is reconciling differing interests across departments. Collaboration and shared goals are essential, yet conflicting priorities can create barriers to integrating observability practices effectively. This misalignment may undermine the system’s overall value. In IT, we face silos every day – specialists deal with their part of the stack only. The same applies to other business functions.
Budget limitations can also present a challenge, particularly when it comes to proving a value that’s often intangible. Since observability provides insights into system performance, potential issues, and inefficiencies, its true impact may not always be immediately visible. The benefits tend to materialise over time, as organisations gather data, identify patterns, and make improvements.
Another challenge is the fast-paced nature of business nowadays, which can complicate the integration of observability. Organisations need to remain agile and adaptive, but excessive focus on understanding current systems may delay action, leaving them behind in dynamic environments. Overcoming these obstacles requires balancing deep insights with the agility to adapt and implement changes quickly.
