By Nicole Kobie
Publication Date: 2026-10-23 09:04:00
More than half of UK organizations have reported “surprise” bills for monitoring IT systems, according to new research from Cisco, and AI is a key factor behind surging costs.
In a new survey from the firm, 65% of respondents said their observability costs had exceeded infrastructure or operational costs this year, with half reporting surprise costs with telemetry data, and another third saying that led to reduced data coverage or retention.
The complaint isn’t just high costs, but those that are higher than expected, with 55% of those asked pointing to surprise expenses that are straining operations more than typically baseline costs.
General AI adoption costs are also exacerbating the issue, Cisco found. Another 55% said they are finding it impossible to control AI costs, a problem as AI observability has become a priority, according to nine-in-ten…
