Why Slow, Incomplete Data Is Costing Businesses During Outages and Cyber Incidents

When a network disruption hits, whether it's a cyberattack, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, or a faulty system update, the first challenge for leadership is working out how serious the problem actually is. According to NETSCOUT director of enterprise strategy Jack Callahan, this decision often has to happen fast, since public companies can face strict disclosure timelines once an incident is confirmed to be material.

The issue many organisations face is that despite collecting large volumes of operational data such as metrics, events, logs, and traces, this information often isn't detailed or timely enough to give a clear picture of what's happening. Research from NETSCOUT found that 81 percent of organisations believe a lack of sufficient data increases how long it takes to resolve incidents, and over two-fifths estimate downtime costs between $500,000 and $999,000 per hour.

This gap forces technical teams to rely on guesswork rather than solid evidence, even when significant money has been invested in monitoring tools. As businesses look to bring automation and AI into their operations, having accurate, real-time, and complete visibility into network activity is becoming essential, not just for security teams but for the wider organisation's ability to respond quickly and confidently to disruption.