Observability is rapidly evolving as organizations across Europe embrace digital transformation, cloud adoption, and AI. As IT environments become more complex, traditional monitoring approaches are no longer sufficient.
The future of observability in Europe will be shaped by advancements in AI-driven analytics, regulatory requirements, sustainability goals, and the increasing need for proactive system intelligence. This shift will impact enterprises, public sector organizations, and technology vendors as they strive to optimize performance, enhance security, and control costs.
IDC’s MarketScape: European Observability Market 2025 Vendor Assessment evaluates the major players based on their observability portfolios, solutions, and go-to-market strategies. Key trends highlighted in this document include:
1. AI’s Role in the Observability Space
AI/ML will redefine observability in Europe by enabling automated anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and intelligent remediation. AI-driven observability platforms will help organizations move from reactive to proactive monitoring, identifying potential issues before they cause business disruptions.
One key development is AI-powered incident response, which correlates vast amounts of telemetry data (logs, metrics, traces) to detect patterns and surface actionable insights. This will reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) and enhance IT efficiency. GenAI will assist IT teams by summarizing alerts, suggesting fixes, and automating routine tasks.
With the increasing adoption of AI observability tools, European enterprises will focus on data quality and contextualization to ensure accurate AI-driven decision-making.
2. European Regulations
Europe has some of the world’s most stringent data privacy and cybersecurity regulations and these will significantly influence the future of observability. Organizations must ensure that observability platforms align with regulations like the GDPR, the NIS2 Directive, the EU’s AI Act, DORA, and the CSRD.
These regulations will drive data sovereignty initiatives, pushing European businesses toward in-region observability solutions that ensure compliance with local data residency laws. Vendors will need to offer localized cloud services, on-premises deployment options, and sovereign cloud observability solutions.
3. The Value of Observability in Meeting Sustainability Goals
As sustainability becomes a top priority, European organizations will increasingly integrate GreenOps principles into their observability strategies. The focus will be on energy-efficient infrastructure monitoring, carbon footprint analytics, and sustainable FinOps.
Governments and enterprises will require sustainability observability dashboards to comply with the EU’s CSRD and ensure transparency in emissions tracking. Cloud providers and observability vendors will respond by embedding carbon intelligence features into their platforms.
4. The Rise of Open Observability Standards
To improve interoperability and avoid vendor lock-in, European organizations are embracing open source observability frameworks such as OpenTelemetry and Prometheus. These standards enable unified data collection across hybrid and multicloud environments, ensuring greater flexibility and cost efficiency.
As European enterprises prioritize vendor-agnostic observability, the market will see increased adoption of self-hosted and open source observability solutions, particularly among companies concerned about data sovereignty and compliance.
5. Security and Cyber-Resilience
With the rise of sophisticated cyberthreats, observability is becoming a key component of security operations. Security observability will integrate with SIEM and detection and response platforms, enabling real-time threat detection and automated incident response. Future observability solutions will focus on zero trust observability and AI-powered threat intelligence.
Conclusion
Observability in Europe will be driven by AI, regulatory compliance, sustainability, open source adoption, and enhanced security measures. Organizations will increasingly adopt intelligent observability platforms that provide end-to-end visibility across complex IT ecosystems, helping them optimize performance, mitigate risks, and achieve compliance. As these trends accelerate, European enterprises must invest in cutting-edge observability solutions to stay competitive in an evolving digital landscape.
Reach out to Filippo Vanara to learn more about how IDC can help you on your observability journey in Europe.
For more information about the upcoming EU regulations (specially regarding AI and ESG) and learning how to navigate these changes, adapt to new standards, and leverage Europe’s unique approach to digital governance as a competitive advantage, register for our webcast here: Simplifying EU Digital Regulations: Opportunities in ESG and AI
