The disclosed embodiments provide a system that analyzes telemetry data from a computer system. During operation, the system obtains the telemetry data, which includes first information containing telemetric signals gathered using sensors in the computer system and second information that indicates one or more transaction latencies of software running on the computer system. Upon detecting an upward trend in the one or more transaction latencies, the system analyzes the telemetry data for a correlation between the one or more transaction latencies and one or more environmental factors represented by a subset of the telemetric signals. Upon identifying the correlation between the one or more transaction latencies and an environmental factor, the system stores an indication that the environmental factor may be contributing to the upward trend in the one or more transaction latencies.