Summary

The benefits of observability are becoming clear, with nearly half (46%) of survey respondents citing improved system uptime and reliability as a top advantage. Other key benefits include increased operational efficiency (42%), reduced security risks (39%), and enhanced customer experience (36%). Organizations also reported gains in developer productivity, cost optimization, business growth, and the ability to handle traffic surges. Notably, companies that achieved full-stack observability saw even greater benefits, including a 51% higher likelihood of improving system uptime and a 44% higher likelihood of increasing operational efficiency.

In terms of financial impact, the median annual value organizations received from their observability investments was $8.15 million, with more than half of respondents reporting annual value of $5 million or more. Those that deployed five or more observability capabilities realized even higher returns, averaging $8.20 million annually. Specific observability capabilities, such as artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) and synthetic monitoring, further amplified the total value received, with organizations deploying these technologies seeing up to 28% higher annual value than those that had not.

Companies with full-stack observability, unified telemetry data, and a single observability platform experienced notably fewer outages, with some reporting up to 77% fewer annual outages than those with more fragmented or siloed observability practices.