Computing environments are more dynamic, distributed, and complex than ever. Observability tools help collect, monitor, and interpret the data they generate — like logs, metrics, and traces — to give IT teams and leaders real-time insights that can help detect issues, troubleshoot solutions, and improve the reliability of their IT systems. But observability tools can’t do their job without a strong infrastructure foundation and the right tools to manage it.

Did you know you can find variables by name and tag? Like the ability to find currently defined classes (as described in Feature Friday #13: classesmatching()) that match a name or tag, you can find variables by name and tag. It’s a nifty capability. variablesmatching() returns a list of variable names that match the name and tag criteria.1 variablesmatching_as_data() returns a data container of the matching variables along with their values2.

IT service outages, while inconvenient, also carry widespread ramifications that affect productivity, revenue streams, business reputation, and customer satisfaction. These outages can also drive burnout and increased human error for the IT operations (ITOps) teams tasked with managing the stress that comes with urgent issues and escalations.

Continuous compliance and risk management can help keep your organization safe as the threat landscape changes and expands each year. The IT operations team is no longer just responsible for a few machines; they are managing complex environments that span across technologies, across teams, and at scale. They're expected to work fast while simultaneously considering the often-conflicting requirements of cost, compliance, and even workforce skills gaps.

Of all the KPIs that gauge the health and operational fitness of an enterprise, Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) from an outage or downtime is one of the most crucial. Yet while MTTR is a universally recognized metric, many organizations still fail to consider the total cost of MTTR when deciding where and how to invest in their IT environments.