The concept of observability has become a cornerstone for ensuring system reliability and efficiency in modern software engineering and operations. Observability, beyond its traditional scope of logging, monitoring, and tracing, can be intricately defined through the lens of incident response efficiency—specifically by examining the time it takes for teams to grasp the full context and background of a technical incident.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference serves as a beacon for the healthcare industry, showcasing the latest innovations and trends that shape the future of healthcare. In 2024, HIMSS once again brought together industry leaders, innovators, and stakeholders to explore the transformative potential of technology in healthcare. In this blog, we will delve into the significant trends, challenges, and insights that have surfaced during our three days at HIMSS in Orlando.

Every day, operators receive mountains of alerts to sift through. Prioritizing alerts based on impact and severity can seem impossible. And constantly evolving IT environments increase complexity by orders of magnitude. Knowing which alerts to prioritize is extremely difficult, especially without the critical context to make those alerts actionable.

I spotted this thread on Reddit, discussing the pains of executives dropping into incidents, and the corresponding impact it can have on the incident response process. Being an SRE community, it was a little more of a one-sided account of the situation. So let’s look a little closer, and dive into what it takes to make incidents better for responders and executives alike.

In today's digitally-driven landscape, businesses rely heavily on their IT infrastructure to maintain operations smoothly. However, with this reliance comes the inevitability of encountering disruptions such as server outages, security breaches, or software malfunctions. Left unchecked, these incidents can have detrimental effects on productivity and revenue. This is where a well-designed Incident Management plan becomes indispensable.