ISG Research is happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The IT Observability: ISG Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG Research.
Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and IT leaders face the dual challenge of optimizing IT operations while simultaneously driving innovation in an increasingly complex marketplace.
IT Management software plays a pivotal role in aligning technology initiatives with business objectives. As enterprises strive to enhance efficiency, reduce costs and maintain a competitive edge, these approaches become critical enablers of streamlined operations and effective resource allocation. Furthermore, as enterprises transition to more agile and cloud-centric architectures, the integration of comprehensive IT Management software platforms facilitates enhanced visibility, control and adaptability across the entire IT stack. This is particularly important as CIOs look to future-proof enterprise architecture and ensure that technology strategies are not only reactive but also proactive in addressing emerging challenges and opportunities.
ISG defines IT observability as a discipline for understanding the internal state of IT systems based on their outputs. This practice transcends traditional monitoring methods, encompassing data collection, analysis and visualization across various IT components. Observability empowers enterprises to gain deeper insights into system performance, enabling them to proactively address challenges such as performance degradation, system anomalies and incidents that might disrupt business operations.
At its core, observability data consists of the specific data points gathered by observability tools—often logs, traces and metrics—which provide an enhanced view of IT services. With the ability to monitor application performance and infrastructure health in real time, enterprises can improve incident response times and operational efficiency. This increased visibility allows IT teams to identify latent issues and mitigate them before they escalate into more significant problems, thereby minimizing downtime and ensuring the reliability of critical services.
One of the most significant benefits of adopting observability practices is the ability to create a unified and collaborative approach to IT Management. By consolidating data from multiple sources and systems, enterprises can develop an integrated view of IT health and performance. This holistic understanding fosters collaboration among IT and business teams, enabling them to work together effectively in identifying root causes and implementing timely solutions. Consequently, habits of data-driven decision-making are formed, enhancing trust in the information that informs operational strategies.
Additionally, as observability data evolves in response to the enterprise’s changing needs, it enables continuous improvement in IT service delivery. The insights gained from this data can inform key operational decisions and strategic investments. For CIOs and IT leaders, this means they are better equipped to align technology initiatives with business objectives.
The necessity for robust observability software approaches cannot be overstated. Infrastructure and applications must perform as expected.
The commitment to observability can yield substantial dividends, as it empowers IT leaders to optimize operations, enhance service delivery and create a resilient IT ecosystem that supports both current needs and future ambitions. For CIOs looking to foster innovation while managing complexity, investing in observability is not just a choice—it is a necessity for achieving long-term success.
Enterprises depend on real-time data for decision-making, and the need for effective observability solutions is more critical than ever. The near-term opportunity is for enterprises to reevaluate their observability strategies and partnerships to improve system performance and reliability. Here are four observability considerations when reassessing the IT strategy:
Complexity of modern IT environments: The adoption of microservices, cloud technologies and hybrid infrastructures has led to heightened complexity in monitoring and managing IT systems. A thorough review of current observability tools can help enterprises identify gaps in visibility that may hinder their ability to understand system performance. Now is the time to ensure that observability software approaches are equipped to handle the dynamic nature of modern infrastructures.
Proactive performance monitoring: In an environment where downtime can significantly impact revenue and customer satisfaction, proactive performance monitoring is crucial. Effective observability tools can automate the detection of anomalies and provide actionable insights before problems escalate. Enterprises should evaluate their observability partnerships to ensure they offer advanced capabilities, such as real-time analytics and automated troubleshooting, to enhance incident response efforts.
Focus on user experience: As enterprises strive to deliver exceptional user experiences, observability tools must span beyond technical metrics to include user behavior and performance monitoring. This holistic view empowers IT teams to make data-driven decisions that prioritize user satisfaction. By reassessing observability strategies, enterprises can align their monitoring efforts with the broader goal of enhancing customer experiences.
Enable data-driven decision making: In the age of data, enterprises must harness insights gleaned from observability tools to inform strategic decisions. Effective observability not only aids in troubleshooting but also provides valuable insights into usage patterns, trends and potential areas for investment. As such, it is essential for enterprises to ensure their observability software approaches support data analysis and reporting capabilities.
By focusing on complexity management, proactive monitoring, user experience and data-driven decision making, IT leaders can build a compelling case for necessary enhancements. A robust observability strategy will empower enterprises to maintain system reliability, enhance operational efficiency and deliver superior experiences in an increasingly digital landscape.
Generative AI (GenAI) plays a pivotal role in enhancing IT Management software by automating complex processes, improving decision-making and driving efficiencies across various IT functions. By leveraging GenAI, enterprises can streamline service delivery, optimize resource allocation and proactively identify and resolve issues, ultimately leading to improved operational performance. Additionally, GenAI enables IT teams to generate insights from vast amounts of data, facilitating more informed strategic planning and enhancing collaboration among teams. As enterprises embrace digital transformation, IT Management software integrated with GenAI capabilities becomes essential for staying competitive.
Within observability, GenAI has become a significant tool for enterprises aiming to gain deeper insights into their IT system performance. One practical use case is the automation of performance reports based on data collected from various monitoring tools. This enables IT teams to quickly understand trends, identify anomalies and assess the overall health of their systems without manually sifting through extensive datasets.
GenAI is also instrumental in enhancing incident detection and response. By analyzing real-time system outputs, it can pinpoint anomalies and correlate events from diverse sources, creating a comprehensive view of system behavior. This predictive capability allows teams to address issues proactively, thereby reducing incident response times significantly.
Furthermore, GenAI can be leveraged to generate troubleshooting guides and knowledge articles based on previously documented issues and their resolutions. This facilitates faster issue resolution by providing technicians with contextually relevant documentation directly within their workflows, improving efficiency and supporting a culture of knowledge sharing.
Additionally, GenAI can assist in synthesizing insights across various observability tools, delivering comprehensive health checks of IT environments at a glance. By merging data from multiple systems, stakeholders can obtain a holistic view of their infrastructure's performance, making it easier to identify systemic weaknesses and take corrective actions.
Agentic AI, although not yet available, has the potential to enhance how enterprises monitor and manage system performance. One envisioned application is autonomous monitoring systems that continuously analyze data to detect anomalies and provide insights without human intervention. Its predictive capabilities may enable early identification of issues, recommending proactive measures based on historical performance data. Additionally, agentic AI could automate troubleshooting processes, improving incident response times and allowing IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives. Future capabilities may also include detailed performance reports and dashboards, facilitating informed decision-making regarding IT environments and enhancing overall service levels.
CIOs and IT leaders should approach IT Management software incorporating GenAI, large language models (LLMs) and future agentic AI capabilities with enthusiasm and caution. While these technologies offer significant benefits, they also come with unique challenges and prerequisites. A holistic evaluation must include technical aspects as well as business, ethical and strategic considerations. Other areas of focus include risk awareness, critical infrastructure, organizational readiness, governance and compliance along with a long-term perspective on sustainability and scalability of AI approaches.
ISG believes a methodical approach is essential to maximize competitiveness. It is critical to select the right software provider and product to improve the performance of your enterprise’s people, process, information and technology components.
The ISG Buyers Guide for Observability is designed to provide a 360-degree view of a software provider’s ability to optimize the delivery, performance and governance of IT services within an enterprise. Separate Buyers Guide research reports are available for ITSM, FinOps, AIOps and IT Operations Management software.
The ISG Buyers Guide for Observability evaluates products on capabilities including anomaly detection and proactive alerts, collaboration and insight sharing, data collection and integration, GenAI and machine learning (ML), open-source framework support, real-time monitoring and visualization, root cause analysis and troubleshooting tools, and scalability and integration with existing tools. To be included in this Buyers Guide, software providers must meet or exceed the inclusion criteria and have commercially available observability software products.
The insights gained from understanding current IT Management software providers are invaluable for IT leaders who aim to align their technology investments with organizational goals, optimize workflows and foster a culture of innovation. By investing in the right tools, CIOs can unlock new avenues for growth and transformation, paving the way for enterprises to thrive.
This Buyers Guide report evaluates the following software providers that offer products addressing key elements for observability: BMC, Broadcom, Chronosphere, Coralogix, Datadog, Dynatrace, EasyVista, Elastic, Google Cloud, Grafana Labs, IBM, LogicMonitor, Logz.io, Microsoft, New Relic, OpsRamp, ServiceNow, SolarWinds, Splunk, Sumo Logic, Zenoss and Zoho.
This research-based index evaluates the full business and information technology value of IT observability software offerings. We encourage you to learn more about our Buyers Guide and its effectiveness as a provider selection and RFI/RFP tool.
We urge organizations to do a thorough job of evaluating IT observability offerings in this Buyers Guide as both the results of our in-depth analysis of these software providers and as an evaluation methodology. The Buyers Guide can be used to evaluate existing suppliers, plus provides evaluation criteria for new projects. Using it can shorten the cycle time for an RFP and the definition of an RFI.
The Buyers Guide for IT Observability in 2025 finds ServiceNow first on the list, followed by Splunk and Microsoft.
Software providers that rated in the top three of any category ﹘ including the product and customer experience dimensions ﹘ earn the designation of Leader.
The Leaders in Product Experience are:
The Leaders in Customer Experience are:
The Leaders across any of the seven categories are:
The overall performance chart provides a visual representation of how providers rate across product and customer experience. Software providers with products scoring higher in a weighted rating of the five product experience categories place farther to the right. The combination of ratings for the two customer experience categories determines their placement on the vertical axis. As a result, providers that place closer to the upper-right are “exemplary” and rated higher than those closer to the lower-left and identified as providers of “merit.” Software providers that excelled at customer experience over product experience have an “assurance” rating, and those excelling instead in product experience have an “innovative” rating.
Note that close provider scores should not be taken to imply that the packages evaluated are functionally identical or equally well-suited for use by every enterprise or process. Although there is a high degree of commonality in how organizations handle IT observability, there are many idiosyncrasies and differences that can make one provider’s offering a better fit than another.
ISG Research has made every effort to encompass in this Buyers Guide the overall product and customer experience from our IT observability blueprint, which we believe reflects what a well-crafted RFP should contain. Even so, there may be additional areas that affect which software provider and products best fit an enterprise’s particular requirements. Therefore, while this research is complete as it stands, utilizing it in your own organizational context is critical to ensure that products deliver the highest level of support for your projects.
You can find more details on our community as well as on our expertise in the research for this Buyers Guide.