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Hybrid Cloud is Mainstream and Performance Management Software is Essential

Shamus McGillicuddy

Enterprises are aggressively deploying hybrid cloud infrastructure today, and the majority of them are deploying new network performance management software to support it.

Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) recently published its biannual network management megatrends research report, Network Management Megatrends 2016: Managing Networks in the Era of the Internet of Things, Hybrid Clouds and Advanced Network Analytics. For this research we surveyed 150 North American enterprise network management professionals, and as the title makes obvious we asked them how they are impacted by hybrid clouds, among other megatrends.

Thirty-five percent (35%) of them said that their organizations have completed a production hybrid cloud deployment. Another 35% said they are in the process of deploying a hybrid cloud today and 15% said they plan to go into production within 12 months. EMA defined a hybrid cloud as a combination of internal, private cloud infrastructure and external, public cloud infrastructure, with orchestration and connectivity across the two.

Performance monitoring is a critical technology for enterprises that are deploying or operating hybrid clouds. We asked them to identify which networking technologies they are adopting to support these environments. The number one response was network virtualization overlays (e.g. VMware NSX). The second most popular response was network performance monitoring and management software (51%).

We also asked research participants to identify the networking challenges they are facing with hybrid cloud. The number one challenge (30%) was the complexity of provisioning interconnections between public and private cloud environments. However, several other challenges emerged as nearly as common. For instance, 26% said they lacked end-to-end, multi-site network visibility and troubleshooting, and 26% said they struggled with network latency between internal and external cloud resources. Finally, 23% said that their applications were not properly architected for hybrid cloud networks. These latter three challenges point to potential application performance problems. Enterprises who are implementing hybrid clouds will need to evaluate the readiness of their performance management to support these new cloud environments. Many of them also clearly need to evaluate their application architectures before they migrate.

EMA's 2016 network megatrends research explored a number of other interesting topics that IT professionals will find informative. For instance, we found that the vast majority of network management professionals are supporting an Internet of Things (IoT) initiative. The research explores the technologies they are adopting, the use cases they are pursuing, and the challenges they are facing with IoT.

Nearly half of enterprises are applying advanced analytics to network data. And more than half are outsourcing some aspects of network management to a managed services provider. Our research explores both of these trends in depth. It also examines enterprises' evolving requirements of network management products and the overall challenges to and benefits of network operations success.

To learn more about this research, attend EMA's free research highlights webinar and download the full report.

Shamus McGillicuddy is Senior Analyst, Network Management at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).

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Hybrid Cloud is Mainstream and Performance Management Software is Essential

Shamus McGillicuddy

Enterprises are aggressively deploying hybrid cloud infrastructure today, and the majority of them are deploying new network performance management software to support it.

Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) recently published its biannual network management megatrends research report, Network Management Megatrends 2016: Managing Networks in the Era of the Internet of Things, Hybrid Clouds and Advanced Network Analytics. For this research we surveyed 150 North American enterprise network management professionals, and as the title makes obvious we asked them how they are impacted by hybrid clouds, among other megatrends.

Thirty-five percent (35%) of them said that their organizations have completed a production hybrid cloud deployment. Another 35% said they are in the process of deploying a hybrid cloud today and 15% said they plan to go into production within 12 months. EMA defined a hybrid cloud as a combination of internal, private cloud infrastructure and external, public cloud infrastructure, with orchestration and connectivity across the two.

Performance monitoring is a critical technology for enterprises that are deploying or operating hybrid clouds. We asked them to identify which networking technologies they are adopting to support these environments. The number one response was network virtualization overlays (e.g. VMware NSX). The second most popular response was network performance monitoring and management software (51%).

We also asked research participants to identify the networking challenges they are facing with hybrid cloud. The number one challenge (30%) was the complexity of provisioning interconnections between public and private cloud environments. However, several other challenges emerged as nearly as common. For instance, 26% said they lacked end-to-end, multi-site network visibility and troubleshooting, and 26% said they struggled with network latency between internal and external cloud resources. Finally, 23% said that their applications were not properly architected for hybrid cloud networks. These latter three challenges point to potential application performance problems. Enterprises who are implementing hybrid clouds will need to evaluate the readiness of their performance management to support these new cloud environments. Many of them also clearly need to evaluate their application architectures before they migrate.

EMA's 2016 network megatrends research explored a number of other interesting topics that IT professionals will find informative. For instance, we found that the vast majority of network management professionals are supporting an Internet of Things (IoT) initiative. The research explores the technologies they are adopting, the use cases they are pursuing, and the challenges they are facing with IoT.

Nearly half of enterprises are applying advanced analytics to network data. And more than half are outsourcing some aspects of network management to a managed services provider. Our research explores both of these trends in depth. It also examines enterprises' evolving requirements of network management products and the overall challenges to and benefits of network operations success.

To learn more about this research, attend EMA's free research highlights webinar and download the full report.

Shamus McGillicuddy is Senior Analyst, Network Management at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).

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According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

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 ...

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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 ...

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