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Organizations Renew Focus on End-User Experience as UCC Troubleshooting Headaches Escalate

As organizations continue to adapt to a post-pandemic surge in cloud-based productivity, the 2023 State of the Network report from Viavi Solutions details how end-user awareness remains critical and explores the benefits — and challenges — of cloud and off-premises network modernization initiatives.

One theme carried over from the previous years' studies was the perseverance and resilience IT teams are building as they manage network performance while balancing new technology deployment, security threats and visibility gaps. Both SD-WAN and cloud-based services have reached nearly 100% adoption, with zero-trust network access (ZTNA) deployment on the rise as a cybersecurity priority.

End-user experience is the highest-ranking key performance indicator (KPI) among IT teams, with 7 in 10 considering it more important than other KPIs derived through active monitoring, packets, and flow data.


The report also highlights the inherent monitoring challenges involved in the transition to a remote-first, cloud-native modern enterprise. Around 70% of organizations surveyed say more than half of their applications are hosted in the cloud. However, fewer than 1% of organizations say they are satisfied with network visibility, with 4 in 5 citing visibility of cloud or off-premises assets as a top concern. TLS encryption, vital for enhancing IT cybersecurity, also complicates visibility objectives.

Troubleshooting teams are also under increased pressure. Echoing findings from 14 of the past 15 surveys, problem domain isolation — pinpointing issues across network, server, application, or client domains — remains one of the biggest challenges for IT teams. The inability to adequately monitor bandwidth consumption ranks close behind. IT teams also cited the number of tools needed to resolve specific issues as a primary concern, and sourcing the requisite talent to troubleshoot network performance issues remains a key obstacle.

As organizations continue to adopt Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC), the nature of UCC's near real-time performance demands is becoming more apparent. According to the report, nearly half (49%) of teams spend between 10 and 20 hours per week troubleshooting UCC platforms, with 42% spending up to 10 hours per week.

Despite the increased workload on troubleshooting teams, 83% of organizations said that the benefits of cloud modernization, including savings and increased productivity, outweighed the costs.

"The words 'perseverance' and 'resilience' spring to mind when considering the effort IT teams are putting into ensuring service delivery in the current environment," commented Chris Labac, VP and GM, Network Performance and Threat Solutions, VIAVI. "Organizations understand the growing demand for bandwidth and the myriad benefits of becoming remote-first, cloud-oriented enterprises and are determined to follow through on their plans. However, visibility over off-premise areas such as SASE devices, cloud-hosted services, and the general experience of remote users, has never been more important."

He continued, "Organizations can overcome many of these critical challenges with more automated problem identification and domain isolation capabilities. Automation efforts should also mean IT teams spend less time in the war room and more time driving strategic initiatives."

Methodology: VIAVI (and previously Network Instruments) has conducted its State of the Network global study for 15 consecutive years, drawing insight about network trends and identifying some of the challenges faced by IT teams. Results were compiled from 307 respondents including network, security, and development operations professionals from around the world. In addition to geographic diversity, the study population was distributed by age, industry experience, current level, job function, department, revenue, employee count, and business verticals.

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Organizations Renew Focus on End-User Experience as UCC Troubleshooting Headaches Escalate

As organizations continue to adapt to a post-pandemic surge in cloud-based productivity, the 2023 State of the Network report from Viavi Solutions details how end-user awareness remains critical and explores the benefits — and challenges — of cloud and off-premises network modernization initiatives.

One theme carried over from the previous years' studies was the perseverance and resilience IT teams are building as they manage network performance while balancing new technology deployment, security threats and visibility gaps. Both SD-WAN and cloud-based services have reached nearly 100% adoption, with zero-trust network access (ZTNA) deployment on the rise as a cybersecurity priority.

End-user experience is the highest-ranking key performance indicator (KPI) among IT teams, with 7 in 10 considering it more important than other KPIs derived through active monitoring, packets, and flow data.


The report also highlights the inherent monitoring challenges involved in the transition to a remote-first, cloud-native modern enterprise. Around 70% of organizations surveyed say more than half of their applications are hosted in the cloud. However, fewer than 1% of organizations say they are satisfied with network visibility, with 4 in 5 citing visibility of cloud or off-premises assets as a top concern. TLS encryption, vital for enhancing IT cybersecurity, also complicates visibility objectives.

Troubleshooting teams are also under increased pressure. Echoing findings from 14 of the past 15 surveys, problem domain isolation — pinpointing issues across network, server, application, or client domains — remains one of the biggest challenges for IT teams. The inability to adequately monitor bandwidth consumption ranks close behind. IT teams also cited the number of tools needed to resolve specific issues as a primary concern, and sourcing the requisite talent to troubleshoot network performance issues remains a key obstacle.

As organizations continue to adopt Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC), the nature of UCC's near real-time performance demands is becoming more apparent. According to the report, nearly half (49%) of teams spend between 10 and 20 hours per week troubleshooting UCC platforms, with 42% spending up to 10 hours per week.

Despite the increased workload on troubleshooting teams, 83% of organizations said that the benefits of cloud modernization, including savings and increased productivity, outweighed the costs.

"The words 'perseverance' and 'resilience' spring to mind when considering the effort IT teams are putting into ensuring service delivery in the current environment," commented Chris Labac, VP and GM, Network Performance and Threat Solutions, VIAVI. "Organizations understand the growing demand for bandwidth and the myriad benefits of becoming remote-first, cloud-oriented enterprises and are determined to follow through on their plans. However, visibility over off-premise areas such as SASE devices, cloud-hosted services, and the general experience of remote users, has never been more important."

He continued, "Organizations can overcome many of these critical challenges with more automated problem identification and domain isolation capabilities. Automation efforts should also mean IT teams spend less time in the war room and more time driving strategic initiatives."

Methodology: VIAVI (and previously Network Instruments) has conducted its State of the Network global study for 15 consecutive years, drawing insight about network trends and identifying some of the challenges faced by IT teams. Results were compiled from 307 respondents including network, security, and development operations professionals from around the world. In addition to geographic diversity, the study population was distributed by age, industry experience, current level, job function, department, revenue, employee count, and business verticals.

Hot Topics

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...