Guide to observability maturity: From firefighting to forward-thinking

Observability helps teams understand what's happening across their systems, but many SRE teams still spend most of their time reacting to issues as they arise. The need to move from reactive firefighting to a more proactive stance has never been more important for operations teams today.

That's where observability maturity matters: From improved incident response to understanding business impact and lowering burnout, this guide will provide a framework and model for achieving observability maturity.

This guide helps you assess your current observability maturity, understand why gaps form, and learn how more intentional processes support faster decisions and better business outcomes. You'll get a clear model that shows where your team stands today and what steps can move you toward a more thoughtful, proactive approach.

Highlights

• Understand why observability maturity matters for SRE teams.
• Identify common gaps that keep teams in reactive mode.
• Assess your current capabilities using the Elastic Observability Maturity Model.

Additional resources

• The observability gap: Why your monitoring strategy isn't ready for what's coming next blog
• Observability Maturity Assessment