Many organizations have been monitoring their IT environments for years with monitoring tools. Servers, applications, and networks are monitored for availability and performance. If something goes wrong, an alert is issued—often only after users are already experiencing the impact. Monitoring is useful, but in a world of increasingly complex systems and growing data flows, it falls short.

That's why observability exists: the next step in IT management and security. But what exactly is the difference between monitoring and observability? And why are more and more organizations choosing this proactive approach?

What is monitoring?

Monitoring is the systematic tracking of predefined metrics, such as CPU usage, memory, response times, or error messages. The idea is that as soon as a deviation occurs, an alert is sent.

This works well for known issues, such as an overloaded server or a database that stops responding. Monitoring detects and reports, allowing an administrator to take action.

But there are also limitations:

• You only see what you've configured beforehand. Unknown issues often go unnoticed.
• Alerts tell us what goes wrong, but not why.
• Monitoring is reactive: you only take action when a problem occurs.

What is observability?

Observability goes a step further. It's not just about identifying problems, but primarily about understanding their root cause. Observability combines three data sources:

• Logs: detailed events that provide insight into what is happening within systems.
• Metrics: metrics such as CPU usage or loading times.
• Traces: the route that a request or transaction takes through a system.

By combining these three, you create a complete picture of the IT environment. This way, you see not only that something is going wrong, but also why.

The difference in practice

Suppose a web application is slow to respond.

• Monitoring notes that the response time has increased and sends an alert. But the observation remains.
• Observability shows that the delay is caused by a specific API call to an external service, which in turn blocks a database query.

With observability, you not only identify a symptom, but also the underlying cause. This makes solving the problem faster and more effective.

The main benefits of observability

One of the biggest benefits of observability is that incidents can be resolved much faster. Because you immediately see the root cause, teams can intervene more quickly and limit the impact. This reduces downtime and increases productivity.

But observability goes beyond simply reacting faster. It also makes organizations proactive. Thanks to anomaly detection and trend analysis, problems often become apparent before they cause damage. This allows you to prevent disruptions instead of fixing them after the fact.

Observability also improves collaboration within organizations. DevOps, IT, and security teams work with the same dashboards and data, giving them a shared view of what's happening. This prevents discussions about the root cause and ensures everyone arrives at the right solution more quickly.

Elastic Observability as a solution

Elastic Observability is one of the most widely used platforms for implementing observability. It aggregates logs, metrics, and traces into real-time dashboards and incorporates machine learning for automatic anomaly detection.

For organizations this means:

• Less downtime due to faster insight.
• Improved security through event correlation.
• One central environment instead of separate tools.

Puur Data helps organizations implement and optimize Elastic Observability. Our experts set up the environment, connect data sources, and ensure teams can immediately start using the insights.

Conclusion

Monitoring remains useful, but in complex IT landscapes, it's no longer enough. Observability offers the opportunity to work proactively, resolve incidents faster, and support innovation.

The difference between the two? Monitoring tells you what's happening. Observability explains why.

Do you want to know how your organization can make the step from monitoring to observability? Learn more about Elastic Observability or schedule a meeting with our experts.