Network Management Megatrends 2024: Skills Gaps, Hybrid and Multi-Cloud, SASE, and AI-Driven Operations

Since 2008, the Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) Network Management Megatrends report has been the definitive benchmark study of enterprise network operations strategies. Over the years, EMA has surveyed and interviewed thousands of IT professionals to track how major technology trends are changing the way enterprises manage, monitor, and troubleshoot their networks.

Check out these slides from EMA VP of Research Shamus McGillicuddy to discover key findings from the 2024 report, including:

- The pitfalls to watch out for when managing and monitoring today’s networks
- The technical initiatives that your network operations team should evolve to support in the future
- How teams are reacting to the spread of hybrid and multi-cloud architectures
- How SASE is impacting network operations

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Network Management
Megatrends 2024
Shamus McGillicuddy
Vice President of Research
Network Infrastructure and Operations
Enterprise Management Associates (EMA)
Sponsored by:

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Watch the On-Demand Webinar
•NetSecOps: Examining How Network and Security Teams Collaborate
for a Better Digital Future On-Demand Webinar:
https://info.enterprisemanagement.com/network-management-
megatrends-2024-webinar-ss
•Check out upcoming webinars from EMA here:
https://www.enterprisemanagement.com/freeResearch
© 2023 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

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Featured Speaker
Shamus is a Vice President of Research at EMA,
where he leads the network infrastructure and
operations practice. He has nearly two decades of
experience in the IT industry. His research focuses on
all aspects of managing enterprise networks,
including network automation, AIOps-driven network
operations, multi-cloud networking, and WAN
transformation.
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 3
Shamus McGillicuddy
Vice President of Research
Network Infrastructure and Operations
Enterprise Management Associates (EMA)

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@ema _resea rch
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Sponsors
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 4

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Research Goals &
Methodology

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@ema _resea rch
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The Definitive Network Management Market Research
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 6
EMA’s flagship network operations
benchmarking research
16 years of data
Thousands of IT organizations surveyed
Hundreds of NetOps pros interviewed
2024 goals
Track evolving network management strategies and
tool requirements
Explore personnel shortages and other NetOps
challenges
Identify impacts of multi-cloud, SASE, and AIOps

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@ema _resea rch
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Job titles
49.3% Technical personnel
36.2% IT middle management
14.5% IT executives
IT groups/departments
18.2% Cloud engineering/operations
14% IT service management/service support
13.3% IT project management
10.3% Network engineering
9.6% IT architecture
8.4% Network operations
7.1% DevOps
3.9% IT tool engineering
2.7% Data center operations
Top industries
18.2% Finance/Insurance
17.0% Manufacturing
8.4% Health care
7.1% Retail/Wholesale/Distribution
6.7% Transportation
6.4% Education/Research
5.7% Construction
4.9% Business services unrelated to IT
Location
65.3% North America
43.7% Europe
Annual revenue
25.8% $50 million to less than $250 million
35% $250 million to less than $1 billion
36.7% $1 billion or more
2.4% Unknown/not applicable
Company size (employees)
37.9% 500 to 2,499
43.1% 2,500 to 9,999
19.0% 10,000 or more
EMA Surveyed 406 IT Professionals Involved in Network Management
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

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The State of NetOps

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Strategic Drivers of Network Operations
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 9
High-priority network projects/investments
Technical initiatives that drive NetOps
strategy
35% Public cloud (IaaS/PaaS)
34% SaaS apps
32% DevOps & CI/CD
31% Cross-domain operations/full-stack observability
30% Zero trust
53% Network security
43% Hybrid and multi-cloud networking
40% Network automation
35% Network observability

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Many are Replacing NOCs with Cross-Domain Ops Centers
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 10
WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING BEST DESCRIBES THE WAY IN WHICH YOUR ORGANIZATION PRIMARILY
CONDUCTS NETWORK MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT?

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Field Ops are Common
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 11
86% send technicians into field with portable devise at least once per month
What are they usually doing?
43% Verifying network
documentation
43% Validating network
segmentation
41% Periodic site assessments/audit
What are they usually carrying?
57% Wi-Fi testing software on a
laptop/mobile device
52% Handheld Ethernet/cable tester

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NetOps Teams are Doing Better, but…
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 12
EIGHT YEARS OF NETOPS SUCCESS RATES

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NetOps Challenges

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Warning Signs by the Percentages
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 14
2022 20242020
Network problems that manual errors cause
How many network problems would go away with better tools?
57% 66% 71%
Network alerts that are noise
26% 27% 30%
44% 53%

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Biggest Barriers to Network Operations Success
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 15
RISERS: TOOL FRAGMENTATION, BUDGET, INEFFECTIVE NETWORK MANAGEMENT OUTSOURCING
FALLERS: NETWORK DATA QUALITY, CROSS -DOMAIN COOPERATION

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Network Engineering Labor Market is Tightening
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 16
DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION FIND IT DIFFICULT OR EASY TO FIND, HIRE,
AND RETAIN PERSONNEL WITH NETWORK TECHNOLOGY EXPERTISE? Large enterprises (10,000+ employees)
struggle more
Skills hardest to find in new hires
Network security
Network monitoring and troubleshooting
Network automation
Data center networking
Public cloud networking
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Toolsets Have Consolidated, but Sprawl Remains an Issue
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HOW MANY TOOLS DOES THE NETWORK OPERATIONS TEAM USE FOR NETWORK MONITORING, MANAGEMENT, AND TROUBLESHOOTING?

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Budgets Undermine Operations
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 18
21% of NetOps teams: Low prices are
a major factor in tool buying decisions
27%: Transparent pricing is a major
driver of interest in SaaS-based
network management tools
“A lot of people have declined our offers because
of pay. We’ve been underbidding salaries. One guy
declined on the day he was supposed to start
because he had a better offer.”
Network engineer
Fortune 500 aerospace/defense company
“There are some investments that makes sense to a
network operations person, but they don’t make
sense to the person who would write the check. IP
address management, for example. They told me
to just use a spreadsheet.”
Network engineering director
A large insurance company

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Impacts of Hybrid &
Multi-Cloud, SASE

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Most Teams are Encountering Hybrid & Multi-Cloud
Networks
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 20
77% of enterprises use public cloud IaaS/PaaS services
51% have hybrid infrastructure (public and private)
56% are multi-cloud (two or more providers)
Cloud network observability
99% of network teams try to monitor public cloud networks
70% Using monitoring and reporting offered by cloud providers
58% Deploying new monitoring tools
44% Applying incumbent on-premises network monitoring tools

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Breaking Down Siloed Cloud Networks
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IS YOUR ORGANIZATION TRYING TO DO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING
ACROSS YOUR HYBRID AND/OR MULTI -CLOUD ENVIRONMENT?
HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THESE EFFORTS?

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99% of Enterprises Have SASE Adoption Plans
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 22
SASE observability strategies
55% use their SASE solution’s native
monitoring
61% adopted new network
monitoring tools
39% adaptive incumbent
monitoring
Operational challenges
Managing security policies/controls
Visibility into SASE PoP health/performance
Managing integrations between SASE components
Visibility into traffic between SASE PoPs and cloud
Minimizing latency impact of SASE PoPs
Only 37% are very effective with SASE monitoring
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AI/ML-Driven
Network
Management is
Mainstream

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64% Have Adopted AI/ML Solutions Offered by Network or
Network Management Vendors
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Use cases
47% Security threat detection
37% Automated problem remediation
33% Network troubleshooting/root cause analysis
31% Anomaly detection/analysis
Impacts
61% Enhanced/expanded network automation
57% Skilled engineers are more efficient
56% Lower-skilled technicians have bigger impact

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How are network teams breaking
down IT silos?
What are the most critical platform
and feature requirements of network
management tools?
Is cloud repatriation impacting
NetOps?
Why is synthetic network monitoring
now mainstream?
Why are network teams not quite ready
for streaming telemetry?
The Full Report Covers so Much More
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The Network Management Megatrends Report is Now Available!
Learn more and download:
https://bit.ly/netman-megatrends-2024
© 2024 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 26