Deep observability - what is it, and why do we need it?

As hybrid cloud infrastructure becomes the backbone of the modern enterprise, the threat landscape is evolving faster than ever. Increasingly sophisticated attackers, hidden vulnerabilities, and complex regulatory mandates are making it harder for IT and security teams to ensure robust protection across this intricate environment. The 2024 Gigamon Hybrid Cloud Security Survey reveals that key concerns among Security and IT leaders include unexpected blind spots, increasing attack complexity, and the rapidly shifting regulatory landscape. In fact, only 1 in 5 Australian organisations were able to effectively remediate a live threat.

These existential challenges require ever-more sophisticated solutions, including the ability to look right into encrypted data.

What is Deep Observability?
Securing hybrid cloud environments is no easy task. With multiple cloud providers and a variety of security and observability tools in play, IT teams struggle to maintain seamless security while ensuring performance and compliance. End users demand uninterrupted access and superior performance, but with limited visibility into encrypted data and lateral traffic (East-West movement), meeting these expectations can be daunting.

To combat these challenges, deep observability has emerged as a critical tool for IT teams. Deep observability – network-derived intelligence delivered to cloud, security, and observability tools – helps organisations eliminate blind spots, reduce tool costs, and improve security and management of hybrid cloud infrastructure. It unlocks the power of the cloud by providing comprehensive visibility into every layer of the network infrastructure, helping organisations pre-emptively detect security threats and performance anomalies.

Key Survey Insights
Security and IT leaders in Australia highlighted visibility challenges when assessing the current state of cybersecurity. Specifically:

• 76% have experienced a data breach, and 30 percent were unable to identify the root cause
• 70% agree that lateral (East-West) visibility is a greater priority for cloud security than North-South visibility today
• 89% believe that gaining visibility into encrypted traffic is critical for cloud security  

Why Deep Observability Matters
Deep observability is becoming a must for IT organisations aiming to stay ahead of threats and improve business agility. By harnessing network-derived intelligence, organisations can proactively mitigate risks, reduce the complexity of cloud management, and deliver a superior user experience.

An advanced deep observability solution serves as a key enabler in this regard. It should integrate seamlessly with existing cloud and security tools, ensuring that hidden vulnerabilities in North-South and East-West traffic, encrypted data, and containers are uncovered. The result? Enhanced security, reduced costs, and a solid foundation for Zero Trust architecture.

The benefits of deep observability are manifold. Among the most important, are:

• Enhanced Business Agility: Streamline cloud migrations and re-platforming projects by leveraging flexible solutions that supports any cloud environment.
• Strengthened Cloud Security: Eliminate security blind spots and gain full visibility into network traffic, enabling the implementation of Zero Trust principles.
• Reduced Hybrid Cloud Costs: Optimize security and monitoring by reducing irrelevant traffic, cutting bandwidth and tool costs by up to 50%.

In today's rapidly evolving threat landscape, deep observability offers the clarity and insights needed to secure the hybrid cloud infrastructure of tomorrow. The future of cloud security lies in proactive risk mitigation, improved visibility, and a collaborative approach between CloudOps and SecOps teams.