We recently finalized our 2026 State of Monitoring and Observability Report: Where IT Lags and How AI Moves It Forward, built on insights from over 750 IT practitioners and leaders. It uncovers exactly where legacy IT environments are falling behind and how AI is rapidly stepping in to deliver the automation, context, and proactive detection modern IT demands. While the full report dives deep into the data, here is an exclusive sneak peek at why teams are racing to adopt unified, AI-powered observability.
2026 observability benchmarks
The SolarWinds 2026 State of Monitoring and Observability Report identifies three critical shifts currently defining the IT landscape:
- The Visibility Gap: A staggering 77% of surveyed IT practitioners cite a lack of cross-environment visibility as their primary observability hurdle
- The Cost of Tool Sprawl: Organizations currently manage an average of seven distinct monitoring tools, leading to fragmented data and delayed incident response
- The AI Mandate: Trust in automation has hit a tipping point, with 90% of surveyed IT leaders now feeling confident that AI and AIOps can increase the effectiveness of monitoring and observability solutions to reduce alert fatigue and lower mean time to resolution (MTTR)
What are the top observability trends for 2026?
The top observability trends for 2026 highlight a massive shift toward AI-driven monitoring, the urgent need to consolidate fragmented tools, and the demand for unified visibility across complex hybrid infrastructures to reduce alert fatigue and accelerate incident response.
Despite the massive push for cloud-first strategies, our survey reveals a surprising reality: 51% of environments remain primarily or entirely on-premises. Only 6% are fully cloud, yet nearly a third operate cloud workloads without proper cloud-native monitoring. This mismatch creates immediate operational risks, blind spots, and ongoing firefighting that drains IT capacity.
How does tool sprawl impact IT performance in 2026?
Tool sprawl can severely impact IT performance by creating dangerous blind spots, siloed data, and severe alert fatigue. Organizations currently average seven monitoring tools, resulting in slower root cause analysis, higher software spend, and increased operational overhead without improving visibility.
In an attempt to bridge visibility gaps, organizations have added more tools—but more tools do not equal more insight. The report shows 55% of surveyed IT teams believe they use too many tools. The data points to a clear truth: visibility cannot simply be stitched together across disparate platforms. It must be inherently unified.
How is AI changing IT monitoring in 2026?
AI is fundamentally changing IT monitoring by automating proactive remediation, drastically reducing MTTR, cutting alert noise, and improving cost efficiency. Today, 90% of surveyed IT leaders trust AI and AIOps to strengthen their observability and operations.
AI is no longer a theoretical enhancement—it is a measurable advantage. Interestingly, the data shows that SolarWinds® Observability customers are leading this charge significantly: 67% have fully implemented AI across most monitoring use cases, compared to only 35% of noncustomers.
Why is unified observability essential for modern IT?
In 2026, the gap between infrastructure complexity and monitoring capability has become a significant business risk. The report highlights that 64% of respondents now view unified observability across all layers of the IT stack as critical to their team’s success.
The Visibility Benchmark: SolarWinds vs. the Industry
The data reveals a stark contrast in how teams perceive their own visibility. While many organizations struggle with blind spots, SolarWinds customers report significantly higher levels of operational awareness:
- Visibility Confidence: SolarWinds customers are more than twice as likely as noncustomers (71% vs. 34%) to be “very confident” that their setup provides full visibility across the entire environment
- Digital Transformation: SolarWinds users are over two times more likely to strongly agree (61% vs. 28%) that their observability approach is actively helping them meet digital transformation goals
- Incident Response: About 79% of SolarWinds customers have a fully integrated incident response plan, compared to 55% of noncustomers
Solving the Firefighting Crisis
A key goal of unified observability is to move IT teams from a reactive to a proactive stance:
- Best Practice Goal: Currently, 70% of respondents spend a quarter or less of their time resolving critical issues—a benchmark the report considers a best practice for healthy IT operations
- Primary Pain Point: The urgency for this shift is driven by the bottom line—71% of leaders cite customer experience as the biggest pain point resulting from outages and critical issues
- AI-Driven Prioritization: To reclaim time for innovation, 47% of organizations are already using AI specifically to automate incident prioritization, helping ensure engineers focus on the problems impacting customers most
What are the main barriers to AI adoption in IT operations?
While the benefits of AI are clear, organizations face four primary hurdles to full-scale adoption:
- Security and Compliance (47%): This remains the #1 blocker as teams face strict data privacy requirements
- The Skills Gap (42%): A lack of internal expertise often prevents teams from maximizing AI-forward tooling
- Technological Complexity (41%): The integration of AI into legacy fragmented environments remains a top challenge
- Budget Constraints (33%): Financial limitations are a significant barrier, particularly in the public sector
The Sector Divide
The report highlights that public sector organizations face a steeper climb, being 17% more likely to struggle with leadership buy-in (40%) than their private sector counterparts (23%). Conversely, private sector teams are more focused on the tactical challenges of integration (26%) and upskilling (43%).
How can organizations overcome AI adoption barriers?
Modernizing monitoring and observability practices requires more than new software—it requires a shift in leadership and culture.
Master the Change Management Role
Don’t simply ask for AI; build a business case by highlighting the high cost of the status quo:
- Identify Friction: Call out specific manual processes and outdated systems that slow down your team
- Show the Impact: Communicate to leadership how firefighting prevents the team from exploring high-value upgrades or solutions
- Visualize the Shift: Demonstrate how automation can pivot the team from reactive troubleshooting to proactive maintenance
Prioritize AI Access Control and Data Security
Address the #1 blocker (security) head-on by applying existing governance to AI:
- Face Concerns Early: Bring security and compliance stakeholders into the conversation during the evaluation phase
- Lead With Controls: Use the same proactive care for company and customer data as you do for standard IT infrastructure
- Select Secure Partners: Choose monitoring and observability solutions specifically designed to strengthen your security posture while unlocking AI potential
Invest in Upskilling to Combat Cultural Resistance
Overcome the #2 blocker (skills gap) by reframing AI as a tool for professional growth, not a threat:
- Educate the Team: Provide the specific training necessary for engineers to master AI-powered diagnostics
- Shift the Narrative: Discuss how automation handles the noise, allowing the team to focus on more complex, rewarding architectural projects
- Bring in New Voices: Use external education and community insights to help bridge the knowledge gap within the organization
The 2026 State of Monitoring and Observability Report reveals a clear message: IT environments have outpaced legacy monitoring. Complexity is rising faster than teams can manually keep up, but AI and unified observability provide a concrete path forward.
The data proves this shift isn’t simply about technical upgrades—it’s about business resilience. With 92% of SolarWinds customers reporting good to excellent return on investment and two times more confidence in their full-stack visibility, the path to modernization is already being paved by industry leaders.
Organizations bridging the visibility gap today will achieve faster troubleshooting, lower operational costs, and stronger customer experiences. Those that wait risk widening the performance gap until it becomes a permanent competitive disadvantage.
Get the Full 2026 State of Monitoring and Observability Report
Dive deeper into the findings, charts, and practitioner insights shaping observability this year. Discover where teams are investing, how AI is changing operations, and how leading organizations are modernizing their approach.
