Seventy-seven percent of IT teams lack full visibility across on-prem and cloud environments, according to SolarWinds’ 2026 State of Monitoring & Observability Report.
The study examines how IT teams are navigating increasingly fragmented hybrid environments and how AI is reshaping modern observability.
Balancing legacy and cloud IT environments
SolarWinds, in partnership with UserEvidence, surveyed more than 750 IT professionals who manage complex, distributed systems characterized by tool sprawl, cross-team silos, and prolonged outages.
The study identified a misalignment between modern IT architecture and the Monitoring & Observability (M&O) tools needed to achieve full-stack visibility.
In particular, it revealed that many M&O tools have struggled to keep pace as organizations balance legacy infrastructure and cloud-native architectures.
“As IT environments grow more distributed and business-critical, visibility is no longer optional; it’s foundational,” said Cullen Childress, chief product officer at SolarWinds.
“Unified observability shifts teams from reactive firefighting to proactive resilience, enabling them to optimize performance, reduce risk, and keep the business running without disruption.”
Key findings from the report include:
- 77% cite limited visibility across on-prem and cloud environments
- 75% say the lack of coordination between teams (e.g., network, infrastructure, applications, and database) hinders effective observability
- 55% report using too many monitoring and observability tools
Leveraging AI to close M&O gaps
In the report’s official press release, SolarWinds highlighted that many IT professionals view “complete visibility” as critical to improving efficiency and performance.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents (64 percent) said unified observability across all layers of the IT stack is very important to their team’s success.
AI was also identified as a key element of modern observability. Specifically, 90 percent of respondents expressed confidence in AI’s ability to improve monitoring and observability operations.
Respondents also reported benefits from AI-assisted observability, including cost reductions and faster mean time to resolve (MTTR). According to the survey, IT professionals are already using AI to:
- Automate incident prioritization (47%)
- Accelerate root cause analysis (45%)
- Predict capacity and performance issues (45%)
- Reduce alert noise and fatigue (45%)
AI challenges and ways forward identified
Despite strong confidence in the emerging technology, IT teams also named several barriers preventing them from fully operationalizing AI:
- Security concerns: 47%
- Skills gaps: 42%
- Complexity of technology: 41%
- Employee reluctance or resistance: 37%
- Budget constraints: 33%
In response, the SolarWinds report recommends a few steps teams can take to overcome these challenges and integrate AI into their observability practice.
These include:
- Identifying where AI can immediately improve M&O tasks
- Implementing strict access protocols for AI tooling
- Training or upskilling staff to promote effective and responsible AI use
“Every organization’s path to full visibility looks different,” said Abigail Norman, senior director of product marketing at SolarWinds.
“Our platform cuts through the noise by unifying observability across the stack. AI should do more than reduce alerts — it should sharpen prioritization, streamline workflows, and give teams the space to focus on strategy instead of scrambling through dashboards.”
Last February, SolarWinds unveiled its revamped 2026 global partner program. Learn more about its new incentives, expanded demand-generation initiatives, and improved partner-experience tools.