New EMA Research Finds Observability Unification Remains a Challenge for Most Enterprises

Survey of 356 enterprise IT professionals reveals widespread observability tool sprawl, fragmented ownership, and staffing gaps

LAFAYETTE, Colo., Sept. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise Management Associates (EMA™), a leading IT research and consulting firm, has released a new research report, "The Reality of Observability Unification in Modern IT Operations," authored by Parker Hathcock, research director of ServiceOps at EMA, and Shamus McGillicuddy, vice president of research for network infrastructure and operations at EMA. This research examines how enterprise IT organizations are addressing observability tool sprawl and working to create more unified approaches to IT operations.

"IT leaders tell EMA that tool sprawl makes operations more expensive and less effective," McGillicuddy said. "They believe that a unified IT observability toolset can accelerate mean time to resolution, improve collaboration across silos, and boost the productivity of their operators."

Hathcock explains, "Observability unification succeeds when organizations connect visibility to action. That means tightly integrating observability with IT service management and broader ServiceOps processes. It also means treating unification as an operational transformation, not simply a technology project."

Enterprise IT depends on increasingly complex technology environments spanning cloud platforms, applications, networks, data centers, edge infrastructure, and digital services. To monitor these complex enterprises, organizations have accumulated specialized observability and monitoring platforms designed for individual technology domains. While these tools can provide valuable insight to individual teams, they can also create fragmented visibility and force engineers to manually assemble context when incidents cross technology and organizational boundaries.

AI adds urgency to the challenge. Research participants cited AI transformation as the number one driver of tool unification programs. Organizations increasingly expect observability platforms to correlate events, understand business impact, recommend actions, automate workflows, and support autonomous operations. Achieving these goals requires far more than additional telemetry; it requires unified operational context.

Findings from the research include:

• 75% use 4–12 observability tools across network, cloud infrastructure, and service environments.
• 62% say observability tool unification is very important.
• 55% switch tools 3–5 times per incident.

Beyond documenting the current state of observability unification, the report identifies the governance models, organizational practices, integration strategies, and technical capabilities associated with more successful approaches.

This independent research is sponsored by BlueCat, Dynatrace, Entuity Software from Park Place Technologies, NETSCOUT, and SolarWinds.

The complete findings are available in "The Reality of Observability Unification in Modern IT Operations."

EMA will also host a free webinar on September 24 featuring Hathcock and McGillicuddy, who will present key findings and recommendations from the research.

About EMA 
Founded in 1996, EMA is a leading IT research and consulting firm dedicated to delivering actionable insights across the evolving technology landscape. Through independent research, market analysis, and vendor evaluations, we empower organizations to make well-informed technology decisions. Our team of analysts combines practical experience with a deep understanding of industry best practices and emerging vendor solutions to help clients achieve their strategic objectives. Learn more about EMA research, analysis, and consulting services at www.enterprisemanagement.com and follow them on X and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Raleigh Gould
Enterprise Management Associates
[email protected]

SOURCE Enterprise Management Associates