Digital transformation is an ever-accelerating trend in the UAE. The government’s Digital Economy Strategy aims to double the digital economy’s contribution to the country’s GDP in the decade leading up to 2024, so enterprises have been on the fast track to digitalisation.
IT is now the engine that drives business, and just as with increasingly powerful automobiles, it is becoming increasingly challenging to observe and understand what’s happening under the hood.
Therefore, many in the IT engine room are eyeing observability tools as a solution. These tools are designed to achieve optimal performance, compliance, and resilience in digital environments and provide visibility across networks, infrastructures, systems, applications, and databases.
In other words, observability encompasses more than just a simple monitoring tool. By using cross-domain data correlation, machine learning, and AIOps, observability provides the actionable business insights needed to identify and fix real-time issues.
For those who have embraced this approach, the results speak for themselves. According to SolarWinds 2023 IT Trends Report, almost all (96 per cent) of those adopting observability tools recorded improved customer service. Seven in ten (71 per cent) said they could innovate faster, while the same number said they could reduce the average time to solve issues.
For organisations in the Emirates, this ability to innovate could mean the difference between staying competitive and becoming irrelevant. McKinsey already recognises the country as having the highest degree of digitalisation in the region, so consumers expect exceptional digital experiences.
Strong Headwinds: What are the barriers to adopting observability?
With such a seemingly strong case for observability, why are so many enterprises yet to embrace it? Especially when, according to SolarWinds’ research, outages and other downtime can cost organisations $13.7 million a year.
In truth, many are still in the early stages of their observability journey. And while plenty of leaders possess the drive to make the necessary changes, strong headwinds can hinder progress.
Sometimes, a ‘cultural resistance’ to change can dismiss the need for a new approach. IT leaders may prefer to stick with what they know rather than try an unfamiliar tool.
It could be a lack of communication, resource concerns, or a need for more skills and training.
As soon as you start discussing task automation, concerns about whether such a decision will lead to job losses inevitably arise.
Then there is the technology itself. Numerous observability solutions are available. While choice is normally a good thing, in this case, the sheer volume of options can make things overwhelming.
Any one of these issues can impede the timely adoption of observability. Combined, it’s easy for IT departments to be paralysed by indecision. Faced with such challenges, sometimes the easiest path is to delay.
What’s clear is that enterprises are holding back for plenty of reasons. More than seven in ten (72 per cent) reported that the accelerating pace of technological change — including apps and networks — was problematic, with 5 citing the growing complexity of modern applications.
A similar number said that observability blind spots in today’s modern networks — including cloud, tunnels, and databases — also made life difficult. At the same time, just over half (52 per cent) said that insufficient observability budgets were an ’extremely challenging’ obstacle.
Significant Rewards: What are the benefits of Observability?
And yet, for those who overcome ‘decision paralysis,’ the rewards are significant.
Such solutions lead to greater automation, reduced tool sprawl, and the 20/20 vision of comprehensive single-pane-of-glass visibility.
According to the survey, enterprises that adopted observability saw a 233 per cent improvement in the auto-escalation of IT service management (ITSM) or help desk tickets. They also recorded a 213 per cent increase in performance for the auto-remediation of simple alerts.
They saw improvement across the board in a way that fosters transparency and collaboration and encourages a culture of ongoing review.
The message is clear. By accelerating insights, improving data integrity and resilience, implementing automation, and reducing human error while supporting data privacy regulations, observability can play a crucial role in guaranteeing the effective delivery of digital services in an era of mounting IT complexity.
Doing so can ensure that enterprises in the UAE that embrace this paradigm will be valued contributors to the nation’s digital economy.
