"Humans and manual processes can no longer keep pace with network innovation, evolution, complexity, and change," said Jim Frey, VP of Srategic Alliances at Kentik. "That's why we're hearing more about self-driving networks, self-healing networks, intent-based networking, and other concepts. These approaches collectively belong to a growing focus area called AIOps, which aims to apply automation, AI and ML to support modern network operations."
Key findings in the new report from Kentik, The State of Automation, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning in Network Management, include:
The move to cloud is still underway for a few, but multi-cloud is a reality for many
Moving to the cloud, and especially multi-cloud, is one of the driving factors behind the need for network automation. While 76% of our respondents indicated they were using cloud services, nearly a quarter (24%) report that their organization has not yet moved to the cloud.
Of those with cloud services, nearly half (47%) are working in a multi-cloud environment, so the complexity ramp is a swift one.
Network automation is taking shape
85% of respondents said their organization has one or more types of automation, and yet only 27% of respondents said their organization is "extremely prepared" or "very prepared" for full automation.
Progress is being made, however, as respondents feeling "extremely" or "very" prepared nearly doubled from 15% in Kentik's 2018 survey.
The energy sector leads the network automation trend
Outside of the technology industry, the energy sector is the most prepared for full automation. Thirty percent (30%) of energy sector respondents reported their organization is "extremely prepared" or "very prepared" for full automation.
Healthcare and government are behind the curve. In the healthcare industry, only 3% of respondents reported that their organization is "very prepared" for full automation. Government respondents led among industries "not at all prepared," with 21% of the sector noting this response.
Networking processes are least likely to be automated
Networking processes like compliance and incident response are least likely to be automated. The majority (53%) of respondents are using automation for network configuration — the only area to receive a majority response.
Policy management was the second-most automated process, cited by 40% of respondents.
Processes such as compliance, incident response, and cloud bursting received lower response rates. This may be due to the level of human interpretation and investigation that still needs to exist, as these processes are often regulated and/or are more directly associated with impacting a business and its revenue.
Machine learning is growing in importance for network management
Machine learning is growing in importance for network management, regardless of who you ask. Up 20% since our 2018 survey, 65% of respondents said that ML is now "extremely important" or "very important" for network management. This reflects both the steady maturation of and comfort with ML as a technology, as well as the relentless march of complexity, causing network pros to seek help in reducing time and effort required to monitor and troubleshoot network and application performance in large, complex environments.
AIOps adoption among network professionals is very early stage
AIOps adoption among network professionals is very early stage, but the industry appears ready for it to help with network management. Only 22% of respondents reported that their organizations are actively using or planning to use AIOps tools today. However, clear majorities are prioritizing automation and ML, which are two of the three major foundational elements of AIOps (the third is data integration and enrichment).
"While our industry still appears to be in the early phases of embracing AIOps as a collective strategy, our findings show that the rationale and commitment are there," added Frey. "It appears that AIOps for networking professionals could indeed be the dawning of a new era of efficiency, productivity, and responsiveness, despite rampant technology change and growth, ultimately empowering organizational success."
Methodology: The report compiled an analysis based on the survey responses of 388 executive and technical-level attendees at Cisco Live U.S. 2019.
The Latest
Navigating observability pricing models can be compared to solving a perplexing puzzle which includes financial variables and contractual intricacies. Predicting all potential costs in advance becomes an elusive endeavor, exemplified by a recent eye-popping $65 million observability bill ...
Generative AI may be a great tool for the enterprise to help drive further innovation and meaningful work, but it also runs the risk of generating massive amounts of spam that will counteract its intended benefits. From increased AI spam bots to data maintenance due to large volumes of outputs, enterprise AI applications can create a cascade of issues that end up detracting from productivity gains ...
A long-running study of DevOps practices ... suggests that any historical gains in MTTR reduction have now plateaued. For years now, the time it takes to restore services has stayed about the same: less than a day for high performers but up to a week for middle-tier teams and up to a month for laggards. The fact that progress is flat despite big investments in people, tools and automation is a cause for concern ...
Companies implementing observability benefit from increased operational efficiency, faster innovation, and better business outcomes overall, according to 2023 IT Trends Report: Lessons From Observability Leaders, a report from SolarWinds ...
Customer loyalty is changing as retailers get increasingly competitive. More than 75% of consumers say they would end business with a company after a single bad customer experience. This means that just one price discrepancy, inventory mishap or checkout issue in a physical or digital store, could have customers running out to the next store that can provide them with better service. Retailers must be able to predict business outages in advance, and act proactively before an incident occurs, impacting customer experience ...
Earlier this year, New Relic conducted a study on observability ... The 2023 Observability Forecast reveals observability's impact on the lives of technical professionals and businesses' bottom lines. Here are 10 key takeaways from the forecast ...
Only 33% of executives are "very confident" in their ability to operate in a public cloud environment, according to the 2023 State of CloudOps report from NetApp. This represents an increase from 2022 when only 21% reported feeling very confident ...