Explore the limitations of traditional IT monitoring tools in complex hybrid cloud environments. Rehman also highlighted the benefits of adopting Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO) for improved visibility, issue resolution, and user experience.
While much is made of IT departments’ role in driving innovation, there is an inescapable truth—keeping things on track will always be a fundamental part of their job. After all, having the best tech only makes sense if it’s up and running as per expectations. Monitoring IT services is, therefore, a core focus for IT professionals.
Indeed, the importance of IT visibility cannot be overstated. It is foundational for maintaining operational efficiency, enhancing security posture, and delivering seamless user experiences in today’s digital landscape.
The Established Paradigm
IT teams have become accustomed to utilising the monitoring tools provided by their incumbent solutions providers. After all, with traditional on-premises infrastructure, these tools are relatively mature and provide teams with the insight they need.
Cost-effectiveness is a major draw. Native tools are typically included as part of the platform or software package, reducing the need for additional spending on third-party solutions. The incumbent vendor deploys them as part of the solution and typically supports their updates.
These benefits alone are usually sufficient to convince IT teams that seeking anything other than the norm is unnecessary. However, these tools often offer only a false sense of security in modern IT environments.
Native or Naïve
The complexities of infrastructure and application monitoring have grown exponentially since organisations began to embrace cloud solutions. The hybrid nature of the modern enterprise causes significant gaps between on-prem and cloud environments.
Before now, most applications were built on monolithic architecture (the so-called 3-tier model), where all components were tightly integrated into a single unit and deployed as a single service, making visibility possible with traditional software monitoring tools. Following this approach for years, enterprises have become accustomed to combining several disparate monitoring products to address all their monitoring needs.
Fast forward to today, and the complexity of IT environments has grown out of hand. In seeking the most optimal environment for each workload, organisations now have systems running on several microservices and hosted in the distributed cloud and on-premises environments. The native tools used for monitoring each of these environments are highly disconnected, making it nearly impossible for IT teams to get a unified view that tells the whole story. This complexity is further exacerbated by the integration of various technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, which are necessary for creating complex modern-day systems.
Given these challenges with modern IT estates, it becomes challenging to have a clear picture of the performance and health of IT infrastructure.
Hidden Costs of Visibility Gaps
The business risks of visibility gaps are significant. The most obvious is downtime and impact on digital experiences, which are unacceptable in an always-on, digital world. So, too, are the possible security risks and scope for compliance issues. The ripple effect of all this is the potential tarnishing of the brand’s reputation, which can prove disastrous in marketplaces where the next competitor is just a click away.
Also concerning is the cost of lost opportunity. Today, innovation is the game’s name, and DevOps has emerged as the most sought-after software development methodology in the digital world. Businesses that have successfully adopted DevOps practices have been able to develop and deliver high-quality software swiftly and securely.
And yet, most are unable to realise the potential of this paradigm because of the disconnected nature of their monitoring infrastructure. Too many tools, incomplete or disconnected data, and repetitive manual tasks limit visibility, impede communication, consume precious working hours, and bog down release cycles when users expect features faster than ever.
Also Read: The Key to Optimising Efficiency and Cost Savings in Your Cloud Infrastructure
Dedicated Tools Deliver an Edge
Amidst increasingly complex cloud environments and overwhelming disruptions, dedicated hybrid cloud observability (HCO) has emerged as a highly effective solution to identify the culprit when an application starts acting up quickly. Modern HCO solutions use machine learning models to learn an enterprise’s information and surroundings automatically. They can use anomaly detection methods to alert IT teams when something goes wrong by considering individual metrics and a holistic view of the infrastructure and the potential effect of any given problem to help reduce the likelihood of false positives. For this reason, the observability market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% over the next decade.
HCO also greatly aids in ensuring an exceptional user experience. IT teams can avoid significant disruptions by identifying bugs ahead of time. Hybrid cloud observability allows for quick triage, problem-solving, and effective communication with stakeholders impacted by reliability issues. In addition to reducing the mean-time-to-detect (MTTD) and mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR), this solution can help organisations link the performance of their applications to operational results by isolating and addressing mistakes before they negatively affect end-user experience.
In effect, hybrid cloud observability enables IT teams to put themselves in users’ shoes. It allows them to understand what is happening with digital experiences and, critically, why. Because this solution is independent of where application components reside, it grows with the organisation, staying relevant and yielding a return on investment even as the organisation progresses on its cloud maturity journey.
Time to Gain the Observability Edge
Visibility is the linchpin for maintaining operational efficiency, fortifying security, and ensuring seamless user experiences in today’s digital landscape. While traditional monitoring tools have served their purpose, the complexities of modern IT environments demand a more comprehensive approach.
Hybrid cloud observability (HCO) emerges as a beacon of efficacy amidst this complexity, empowering IT teams to swiftly identify and address issues, optimise user experiences, and align IT performance with business outcomes. As organisations navigate the intricacies of cloud adoption and digital transformation, embracing HCO offers visibility and a strategic edge in an ever-evolving technological landscape.
