Leveling up your observability practice — Part 1

The vast majority of teams find themselves still climbing the maturity ladder with a mere 7% of organizations considering themselves experts in the field. These pioneers have mastered not only the technical aspects of observability but also successfully embedding it into their organizational culture — making data-driven decisions a default rather than an aspiration.

What's particularly interesting is that just over a third of organizations — specifically 36% — consider their practice mature. These teams have established solid foundations but recognize there's still room for growth. They've typically mastered the basics of collecting telemetry data across their systems, implemented robust alerting mechanisms, and established clear incident response procedures. The next step for these organizations often involves deepening their analysis capabilities and automating more of their observability workflows.

The largest segment — representing 43% of organizations — finds themselves in the midst of their observability journey. These teams are actively working to enhance their capabilities, and this is where some of the most exciting transformations occur. Success at this stage often comes from focusing on key fundamentals: establishing consistent logging practices across services, implementing distributed tracing to understand service dependencies, and developing clear metrics that align with business objectives. A crucial step for these teams is often the implementation of service level objectives (SLOs) that bridge the gap between technical metrics and business impact.

For those just starting out — representing 15% of organizations — the path ahead offers unique opportunities. While it might feel overwhelming, starting fresh allows you to build on modern best practices from day one. Begin with the basics: identify your most critical services, implement comprehensive logging, and establish baseline metrics for performance and reliability. Focus on building a culture that values observability by involving developers early in the process and making observability a key part of your definition of what’s done for new features. Of particular interest to this group would be starting out with a solid data collection strategy using OpenTelemetry and open standards — a place where more mature organizations would no doubt love to be.

The beauty of this maturity spectrum lies in its dynamic nature. Organizations aren't static in their position — they're constantly evolving, learning, and adapting. A key strategy for advancement is to focus on incremental improvements: start with one critical service, perfect your observability practices there, and then expand to others. Build a clear taxonomy for your telemetry data early on — consistent naming conventions and metadata tagging will pay dividends as your systems grow more complex.

What's particularly encouraging is the tangible impact that progressing along this spectrum can have on an organization's operational efficiency and reliability. Teams that successfully advance their observability maturity often report dramatic improvements in their ability to detect and resolve issues before they impact users. They're able to make data-driven decisions about capacity planning, performance optimizations, and architectural changes.

The path to higher maturity often involves breaking down silos between development and operations teams. Shared dashboards, collaborative incident post-mortems involving AI, and joint ownership of observability tools can help create a unified approach to system reliability. Consider implementing regular "observability days" where teams can focus on improving their monitoring and alerting configurations or establish "reliability champions" who can help spread best practices across different teams. Good observability is as much about your people as it is about your technology.

The key takeaway? No matter where you currently stand on this spectrum, you're part of a larger community working toward the same goal: better, more observable systems that enable us to deliver reliable, performant services to our users. Start where you are; focus on steady progress rather than perfection; try to get the most out of the tools you have; and remember that every improvement in your observability practice brings you closer to more reliable and manageable systems. The journey to observability maturity is exactly that — a journey, not a destination.

So, if you're in that 15% or 43%, don't worry — you're in good company. The journey to observability maturity is ongoing for most of us. But here's the kicker: the benefits of moving up the maturity ladder are substantial.

The survey revealed some eye-opening statistics:

• 78% of mature/expert organizations can typically identify root causes of issues compared to only 35% of early-stage organizations.

• Mature practices are half as likely to hear about issues from users first (24% versus 34% for early-stage organizations).

• 50% of mature/expert teams find cloud technologies easier to manage versus only 17% of early-stage teams.

The numbers around observability maturity paint a compelling picture that many SREs will find both validating and motivating. Our observability maturity data has revealed some fascinating insights into how organizational maturity in observability translates to tangible operational benefits.

The statistics tell a clear story: investing in observability maturity translates directly into operational excellence. Organizations are better positioned to maintain reliable services and respond quickly to emerging issues when they can effectively instrument their systems, correlate telemetry data, and establish meaningful alerting thresholds.

These improvements in observability capability tend to create positive ripple effects throughout an organization. As teams get better at detecting and diagnosing issues, they can spend more time on proactive performance improvements rather than reactive firefighting. This shift often leads to more stable systems, more confident deployments, and better alignment between technical capabilities and business objectives.

While the journey to observability maturity requires significant investment in tools, processes, and cultural changes, the data suggests that these investments pay clear dividends in operational efficiency and service reliability. Each step forward in maturity brings organizations closer to the goal of truly observable systems that can be effectively monitored, debugged, and improved.

The observability maturity spectrum reveals a clear picture: while only 7% of organizations have reached expert status, every team is somewhere along this transformative journey. Whether you're among the 15% that are just beginning or the 43% that are actively improving, you're part of a community working toward better and more observable systems. And you’re already likely seeing the benefits and results. 

In part two of this blog series, we'll explore the roadblocks and solutions at each stage of maturity, offering practical steps to level up your observability maturity. We'll also examine the crucial role leadership plays in driving observability success. Whether you're struggling with tool sprawl, data silos, or cultural resistance, you'll discover battle-tested strategies to overcome these challenges and advance your organization's observability journey. Check out part two in this blog series.