The Value of Observability at the Business Edge

IDC Spotlight focuses on the importance of monitoring and managing the network edge.

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In the May 2025 IDC Spotlight “Ensuring Success of IT’s Accelerating Big Bang: Monitoring and Managing the Network Edge,” Mark Leary, director of network observability, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) at IDC, states that private data centers and public cloud services continue to receive much of IT’s attention because they are centralized resources for all their users. However, it is often the business edge where employees and customers are accessing those resources. Individual users, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, online customers, and distributed AI workloads have made the network edge critically important. As a result, flawless service delivery is necessary for all users and for all business activities.

Importance of the Business Edge


This IDC Spotlight walks through the effect of digital transformations on creating a more distributed infrastructure for businesses and how that shift has increased the value and importance of all those businesses’ distributed locations. Leveraging recent IDC research of 630 respondents, the paper reveals emerging IT concerns with the introduction of AI workloads. Basic business and IT challenges are further discussed to highlight the contributions to the bottom line that are delivered from these remote locations as well as their dependency on the infrastructure.

Value of Observability to Keep the Business Running

This complimentary paper offers a wealth of information for IT teams to learn from and leverage inside your organization, including the following:

  • Business value of users in remote offices and sites and how this has increased the importance of maintaining quality user experience
  • Recent trends in gaining observability at the network edge and how it can improve reactive management while also evolving teams to more proactive approaches
  • How AI-powered networking is influencing management as well as the impact of automation on management
    There is an excellent section that breaks down some of the unique demands for observability among specific industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and retail operations.

Learn more about the value of observability at the business edges in the IDC Spotlight “Ensuring Success of IT’s Accelerating Big Bang: Monitoring and Managing the Network Edge.”