Network observability and security operations are experiencing a paradigm shift, leaving the practice of sampling flow records behind. As network traffic grows and modern infrastructure becomes more complex, sampling traffic data—once considered a necessary compromise—is no longer an effective strategy.
The industry is moving toward full-fidelity network observability, and for good reason. Understanding the limitations of sampling and the need for this shift will ensure your network remains fast and secure in the year ahead.
Why Sampling Falls Short
For years, network and security teams relied on record sampling to manage the high volumes of data flowing through their systems. By collecting only a fraction of the available data, this method helped reduce costs and prevent storage and analysis tools from being overwhelmed. However, as ElastiFlow’s blog post “Why Sampling Sucks for Network Observability” highlights, this approach comes with significant flaws, such as:
Incomplete Visibility: Sampling inherently limits the detail available for forensic analysis. Key insights can be missed, which means that critical threats and anomalies could go undetected.
Reduced Accuracy: When only a portion of network data is available, assumptions must be made. This leads to higher chances of drawing incorrect conclusions and missing important indicators of compromise (IoCs).
Compliance Challenges: Many regulations require full data retention for audits and legal investigations. Sampling can make compliance difficult, if not impossible, as it does not provide a complete historical record.
These challenges make it clear that the old way of sampling can’t keep up with the demands of modern networks. That’s why unsampled network observability is now critical for achieving complete visibility.
Faster Threat Detection and Complete Traffic History
As network and security teams evolve their collaborative practices and share more tools, SecOps engineers recognize the unparalleled value of maintaining a full, detailed history of network traffic.
Comprehensive visibility allows for faster, more precise threat detection and analysis, aids in maintaining compliance, and streamlines day-to-day tasks. The ability to answer questions like “Is this IoC worth investigating?” or “Was this event truly a threat or just a benign activity?” becomes vastly more straightforward when complete data is available.
For example, with full traffic history, you can trace the event’s origin, see every interaction, and confidently determine whether it’s a legitimate threat—saving critical time and reducing the number of false positives.
Overcoming Cost Barriers
Traditionally, cost has been a major deterrent to adopting unsampled flow data. The infrastructure needed to capture, store, and analyze all network traffic can be significant. However, as collaborative practices grow, so does the opportunity to share budgets across teams. This shift in budgeting philosophy is a game-changer for CIOs or COOs.
When multiple operational teams—from NetOps to SecOps to DevOps—use the same data for their tasks, the return on investment (ROI) of good data becomes much better. For example, DevOps teams can use unsampled data to diagnose service latency issues, while network teams benefit from enriched observability for troubleshooting. This unified approach allows organizations to distribute costs, making full-fidelity data collection achievable and providing better insights and efficiencies for their operations teams.
The Benefits of Full Visibility
The switch to unsampled data isn’t just a luxury—it’s a practical necessity in 2025. The benefits include:
Reduced Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR): With complete data, issues can be diagnosed and resolved more efficiently. Streamlined communication across teams minimizes the blame game and leads to quicker decision-making.
Enhanced Forensic Capabilities: Full historical data allows SecOps teams to conduct comprehensive investigations into past incidents, ensuring no stone is left unturned.
Improved Compliance and Audit Readiness: Regulatory requirements often demand detailed records of network activity. Full-fidelity data ensures that compliance is met without the gaps inherent in sampled data.
The Future Is Full Fidelity
NetFlow sampling may have been a pragmatic choice in the past, but as we move forward, we’ll see many network teams phase out this approach.
As the industry adapts to the demands of modern network observability and security, full visibility has proved to be worth the investment. With teams sharing resources and leveraging new budgeting models, the path to full-fidelity network traffic data is not only achievable but essential.
The future of network observability is here, and it’s one where sampling is simply not enough.
Ready to learn more? Download our eBook How Network Traffic Data Keeps You Ahead of Threats and learn how real-time, unsampled data bridges gaps between NetOps and SecOps teams for faster detection and response to sophisticated threats.
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