From Reactive Support to Proactive Observability: Keeping Systems Healthy

Introduction

There’s something exciting about launching a product—it’s a milestone, no doubt. But what happens after that? That’s where the real challenge begins. A live system is one that changes, evolves, and sometimes breaks.

In support, our job isn’t just to wait for something to go wrong. It’s to ensure that, as systems grow and change, they continue to work as they should. Over time, we’ve moved from reacting to issues to anticipating them. And to do that well, we’ve leaned heavily into something that’s become essential in our daily work: observability.

So, What Is Observability (and Why Should We Care)?

In simple terms, observability is about understanding what's happening inside a system based on what it tells us from the outside.

Now, you might think: isn’t that just monitoring? Not quite.

Monitoring vs. Observability

Monitoring is about tracking known problems. You define thresholds, set alerts, and when something crosses a line, you’re notified. It works well for predictable issues, like if a server goes down or CPU usage spikes.

But here’s the catch: monitoring is based on what you already know can go wrong.

Observability goes further—it helps you explore the unknown. It’s about having enough context and data to answer questions like:

• Why is this request slow?
  
  
• Why did this fail only in one region?
  
  
• Why did this pattern of behavior start after last week’s deployment?
  
  

You’re not just reacting to symptoms—you’re discovering root causes and patterns.

Observability typically revolves around:

• Metrics – Numbers that tell you how something is performing (CPU usage, error rates, response time, etc.).
  
  
• Logs – Records of what the system is doing, often in text form.
  
  
• Traces – Visual paths that show how a request moves through different services.
  
  

When we bring these together, we’re not just reacting—we’re understanding, learning, and improving.

Observability provides valuable insights that boost team efficiency, accelerate system optimization, and speed up problem resolution, ultimately benefiting the organization's financial performance.

The financial advantages of adopting observability are evident. The 2024 Observability Forecast revealed that 46% of respondents experienced improved system uptime and reliability. Notably, 58% reported receiving over $5 million in annual value from their observability investments. Within this framework, the importance of business application monitoring as a vital element of a complete observability strategy becomes clear.

Today's systems are intricate, often built using open-source, cloud-native microservices that operate on Kubernetes clusters and cloud infrastructure. These systems are being developed and deployed at an unprecedented pace by distributed teams and components.

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Why Support Needs to Be Part of the Bigger Picture

There’s a tendency to treat support as the team that steps in when something breaks. But that view misses a lot of what the role involves.

Support isn’t just about keeping the lights on. It’s about making sure the lights don’t flicker in the first place. It's looking at the health of a system and asking: is this sustainable? Is this scalable?

For us, being in support means having a long-term view. It means staying close to the product, even after it has been launched. It means caring about how it behaves today and how it will behave a year from now, under different loads, users, and conditions.

We’re not just here to fix bugs. We’re here to keep systems alive.

Reasons driving businesses to adopt observability

According to the 2024 Observability Forecast from New Relic, a primary factor for 41% of the 1,700 respondents was a greater emphasis on security, governance, risk management, and compliance.

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Other significant drivers included:

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• Integrating business applications into operational workflows (35%).
• Adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies (41%).
• Developing cloud-native application architectures (31%).
• Migrating to multi-cloud environments (28%).
• Increasing focus on customer experience management (29%).

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How Observability Helps Us Do That

Here are a few real examples of how observability shows up in the day-to-day:

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We spot unusual behavior before users notice it

A tiny increase in memory usage or an error that occurs occasionally—it may not seem urgent, but it could be a sign of something bigger. Observability helps us catch those early.

We fix faster (and with more confidence)

When something goes wrong, having proper logs, metrics, and traces saves hours. You know where to look. You know what’s normal and what’s not. No guessing.

We learn from incidents

Every issue is a chance to improve. Observability gives us the whole picture, so we can see not just what broke, but why it broke and how to avoid it next time.

We suggest improvements

Sometimes, the data tells us a part of the system isn’t performing as well as it could. That becomes a conversation: should we refactor this? Is there a better way to do X? Support becomes part of the feedback loop, not just the safety net.

It’s Not Just Technical—It’s Strategic

The benefits go beyond system performance:

• Teams collaborate better when they’re looking at the same data.
  
• Product decisions get stronger when they’re informed by how people are using the system.
  
• We build more trust—internally and externally—because we’re not just reacting to problems, we’re staying ahead of them.
• We gain insights into user behavior.
• Provide an enhanced digital experience that meets your users' needs.
• Improve conversion rates, customer retention, and brand loyalty.

And let’s be honest: the less time we spend in crisis mode, the more time we have to focus on things that add long-term value.

Wrapping Up

If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that support is a long game. It’s not about quick fixes or band-aids. It’s about building systems that can stand the test of time.

Observability has helped us shift the way we work. It’s given us more clarity, more control, and more confidence. And in the end, that means better systems, better experiences, and better outcomes for everyone.

At Switch, we see support as a strategic partner in product success. Observability is one of the many ways we help ensure the systems we work on stay strong, stable, and ready for whatever comes next.

Discover how our Support Studio can help you build resilient, high-performing systems.

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