Blind Spots in Hybrid IT: SolarWinds Report Finds 77% of IT Teams Lack Full Visibility Across On-Prem and Cloud

New data shows AI is accelerating incident response, reducing noise, and closing visibility gaps across increasingly complex IT environments

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SolarWinds, a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software, today released its 2026 SolarWinds State of Monitoring & Observability Report¹, examining how IT teams are navigating increasingly fragmented hybrid environments, and in turn, how AI is reshaping modern observability. In partnership with UserEvidence, SolarWinds surveyed more than 750 IT professionals managing complex, distributed systems marked by tool sprawl, cross-team silos, and prolonged outages.

Navigating Complex IT Environments

Key findings from the study identify a critical misalignment between modern IT architecture and the Monitoring & Observability (M&O) tools needed for full-stack visibility. As organizations balance legacy infrastructure with cloud-native architectures, many are discovering their monitoring and observability tools haven’t kept pace.

While these architecture options carry advantages, they can also add complexities to M&O.

Key findings from IT pros include:

• 77% cite limited visibility across on-prem and cloud environments
• 75% say lack of coordination between teams (e.g., network, infrastructure, applications, and database) hinders effective observability
• 55% report using too many monitoring and observability tools

“As IT environments grow more distributed and business-critical, visibility is no longer optional; it’s foundational,” said Cullen Childress, Chief Product Officer, 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.”

Leveraging AI to Fill in M&O Gaps

Modern IT pros require this complete visibility to command peak efficiency and performance. In fact, almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) said unified observability across all layers of the IT stack is very important to their team’s success.

AI is quickly becoming central to modern observability. 90 percent of respondents express confidence in AI’s ability to improve monitoring and observability operations.

Respondents reported certain benefits from AI assistance in observability, which include cost reduction and faster mean time to resolve (MTTR). The data showed that IT pros 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%)

Despite strong confidence, barriers remain to fully operationalizing AI:

• Security concerns: 47%
• Skills gaps: 42%
• Complexity of technology: 41%
• Employee reluctance or resistance: 37%
• Budget constraints: 33%

The report outlines recommended steps teams can take to overcome these challenges and strategically integrate AI into their observability practice. Teams should identify where AI can immediately improve M&O tasks and enact strict access protocols for AI tooling. It's also vital for organizations to train and upskill their staff to promote effective and responsible AI use.

“Every organization’s path to full visibility looks different,” said Abigail Norman, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, 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.”

As observability evolves from monitoring to intelligent orchestration, organizations are increasingly prioritizing platforms that unify data, automate insight, and lay the foundation for autonomous operational resilience.

For the full version of the 2026 SolarWinds State of Monitoring & Observability Report, visit here.

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¹ SolarWinds partnered with UserEvidence to survey more than 750 IT professionals across both the public and private sectors from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East/Africa between November 19 and December 19, 2025. The IT professionals spanned multiple roles including application and/or database management, network operations, and infrastructure (on-premises/cloud).

About SolarWinds

SolarWinds is a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software built to enable customers to accelerate their digital transformation. Our solutions provide organizations worldwide—regardless of type, size, or complexity—with a comprehensive and unified view of today’s modern, distributed, and hybrid network environments. We continuously engage with IT service and operations professionals, DevOps and SecOps professionals, and database administrators (DBAs) to understand the challenges they face in maintaining high-performing and highly available hybrid IT infrastructures, applications, and environments. The insights we gain from them, in places like our THWACK community, allow us to address customers’ needs now and in the future. Our focus on the user and our commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT management have established SolarWinds as a worldwide leader in solutions for observability, IT service management, application performance, and database management. Learn more today at www.solarwinds.com.

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