Telecommunications and technology companies are taking distinctly different approaches as they increase observability adoption, according to new research from New Relic.
The report highlights contrasting strategies between the sectors, as well as the financial and operational impact of high-severity outages.
Outage costs
The report found that 57% of telecommunications organisations experience high-impact outages at least weekly, compared to 27% of technology companies. The financial cost of these outages is significant. Telecommunications companies face average impacts of USD $2 million per hour, whereas their technology counterparts report an average of USD $1.6 million per hour.
For telecommunications firms, downtime can involve not only revenue loss but also public safety concerns and potential regulatory consequences. Technology companies mostly attribute outage costs to lost revenue and operational disruption.
Observability adoption
Telecommunications firms are focusing heavily on artificial intelligence-enabled monitoring. The research shows that 74% of telecommunications respondents have already implemented AI monitoring, far ahead of the global cross-industry average of 54%. In contrast, just over half of technology companies have adopted AI monitoring so far, although 94% expect to do so in the next three years.
Technology firms are more likely to adopt foundational observability and DevOps practices, including network monitoring, alerts, and continuous integration/continuous deployment processes. According to the report, 71% of technology firms have implemented network monitoring, and 69% use CI/CD practices, as well as notable adoption of infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring, and distributed tracing.
Strategic drivers
Artificial intelligence is the top strategic driver for observability adoption across both sectors. AI technologies were cited by 32% of telecommunications respondents and 38% of technology companies as the primary reason to advance observability initiatives. The report indicates that expanding automation is a unifying objective, despite different approaches to implementation.
Return on investment
Both sectors report a strong return on observability spending. Fifty-eight percent of telecommunications companies and 49% of technology organisations say they are realising a return of two to three times or more on their observability investments. Among telecommunications firms, 10% report returns between five and ten times their investment. Half of respondents from both industries state that observability helps achieve key business performance indicators, surpassing the global respondent average of 36%.
"This data is powerful because it shows more than one path to observability maturity. For telcos, they face extreme pressure from high outage costs and are successfully leapfrogging traditional monitoring to go AI-first, while IT organisations are leveraging their strengths by building a developer-centric foundation," said Nic Benders, Chief Technology Strategist, New Relic. "For both industries, observability is no longer just a technical tool; it is a key strategy driving business performance as well as operational stability across both the telecommunications and technology industries."
Operational focus
Operational efficiency remains the most cited benefit of observability for technology organisations at 43%, with improved uptime and reliability following at 40%. For telecommunications companies, improved system uptime is recognised by 38%, and 32% highlight gains in developer productivity.
Training staff to utilise observability tools and consolidating platforms are also areas of attention. Forty-nine percent of technology respondents and 42% of telecommunications decision-makers plan to invest in staff training. Additionally, 47% of technology organisations and 37% of telecommunications firms intend to consolidate their observability toolsets in the future.
