SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 24, 2019 /CNW/ --
News Summary:
- In a survey of over 2000 IT leaders and network strategists,
Cisco found maximizing businesses value to be IT's number one
priority, demonstrating a desire to drive greater innovation and
closer alignment to business strategy.
- In order to achieve this, organizations are moving their
networks towards intent-based networking and investing in AI
technologies.
- IT leaders expect new wireless technologies, AI and IoT to be
the biggest network disruptors in the next five years.
The network is vital to today's digital business. Whether
maximizing employee productivity, optimizing customer experience or
keeping data protected and secure, the network is foundational to
business success. At the same time, the network is in the midst of
one of its biggest evolutions since the introduction of the
Internet, creating an opportunity for IT leaders and their teams to
innovate. Cisco asked over 2000 IT leaders and network strategists
how they plan to prioritize investment and the current state of
their networks.
"IT teams today are running complex mission critical networks
that are increasingly capable of providing rich data. But using
that data to improve the operations, security, or business impact
of the network requires new tools. That's why IT teams are
embracing intent-based networking, AI and machine learning —
because the business demands it," said Scott Harrell, SVP and GM, Cisco Enterprise
Networking. "AI will help IT break the cycle of maintaining the
status quo. By embracing predictive analytics and AI-based
operations, IT teams will pivot from being consumed with
maintaining the status quo to becoming an enabler of new business
innovation."
Key findings from the Global Networking Trends Report and Survey
include:
- IT leaders expect new wireless technologies, IoT and AI-enabled
operations, threat detection and remediation to have the biggest
impact on their network strategy and design over the next five
years.
- The top priority for global IT leaders and network strategists
is to maximize the business value of IT and more closely align to
business needs.
-
- Almost 40 percent of IT leaders named maximizing IT's business
value as their number one priority, higher than simplifying
operations, optimizing employee productivity and minimizing
security events.
- In order to achieve this, leaders and strategists believe
investing in AI technologies is crucial. Almost 50 percent of
network strategists believe increasing the use of analytics and AI
will help enable the ideal network.
- Intent-based networking is coming, allowing organizations to
build on their software-defined networking foundations.
-
- 41 percent of those surveyed claim to have at least one
instance of SDN in at least one of their network domains.
- Only 4 percent of respondents believe their networks have moved
beyond software-defined and are intent-based today. However, 35
percent believe their networks will be fully intent-based in two
years' time.
- When asked to indicate where on Cisco's Digital Network
Readiness Model their networks currently operate, only 28 percent
indicated they've reached a service-driven or intent-based network.
However, when asked where their networks will be in two years, 78
respondents believed they would move beyond software-defined
towards service-driven and intent-based networks.
- IT leaders and strategists are ready to embrace AI and
automation.
-
- Only 18 percent of IT leaders see lack of AI maturity as an
obstacle to network modernization, the lowest level of concern
indicated in their responses.
- 72 percent of respondents plan to achieve AI-enabled predictive
insights or prescriptive remediation within the next two
years.
- 94 percent of respondents believe they will have a
software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) in two years. Further,
47% of SD-WAN owners plan to have an AI-optimized WAN in two
years.
- IT operations are struggling to move from reactive to
proactive, hindering their ability to become more aligned to their
business.
-
- Over 75 percent of IT leaders and strategists believe their
organizations are not predictive or business-optimized.
- One possible explanation as to why IT teams haven't become more
proactive is the amount of time spent on maintaining the status quo
of the network. 73 percent of teams are spending more than half
their time here.
- Another barrier to achieving more proactive and
business-optimized operations is operational silos. 29 percent of
organizations identified coordinating with other IT teams as its
top time-consuming operational activity. An additional 27 percent
identified that a siloed design and operational approach across
separate network domains was holding them back from being able to
modernize their networks.
- IT leaders and strategists aren't concerned about a skills
gap.
-
- Leaders and strategists expressed confidence in their teams'
abilities to address future network challenges. A third of IT
leaders believe their teams are extremely well prepared to meet all
the needs of an advanced network, another 40 percent believe they
are well prepared and only 7 percent believe they are not prepared
at all.
- However, the skills gap remains a barrier for over a quarter of
IT teams. 27 percent of IT leaders identified a lack of necessary
skills as a main obstacle to transitioning to an advanced
network.
- 22 percent of IT leaders identified reskilling and upskilling
to address the skills gap as a top priority.
The complete Cisco Global Networking Trends Report
The
complete Cisco 2020 Global Networking Trends Report is available to
download click here. It is Cisco's inaugural report on the state of
the evolution of enterprise networking. It brings together research
from across Cisco, including guidance from our leaders, fellows,
and distinguished engineers. The report also includes insights from
the Global Networking Trends Survey of over 2000 IT leaders and
network strategists to better understand their network's current
state as well as their future network aspirations.
Additional Resources
- Executive Blog: (Scott Harrell)
Building the Network of the Future - Powered by AI
- Global Networking Trends Report and Survey Homepage
- Intent-based Networking Assessment Tool
- Click Here to view the Networking.Next Virtual Event
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SOURCE Cisco