Key NetOps Priorities for 2021 and 2022

Jay Botelho
Learn more about LiveAction

Today, business transformation is being driven by remote workforces, the proliferation of data, increasing IT complexity and decreasing budgets and resources. And there's never been a better time to optimize IT efficiency through infrastructure modernization initiatives. The reality is that applications and data no longer need to reside on-premises. The migration to public, hybrid cloud, and SD-WAN environments are adding even more complexity to the daunting task of managing and monitoring the network. As global and emerging technology trends continue to drive the network to evolve at an accelerated pace, we wanted to better understand the current trends and challenges these teams face.

As a result, LiveAction conducted a survey of networking professionals that on average manage more than 500 networking devices at organizations with more than 600 employees. Let's dive into four of the key insights revealed in this report.

1. Deploying or expanding SD-WAN solutions remains the top network transformation priority

The highest priority projects for 2022 are not surprisingly aligned with a move away from antiquated technology in favor of optimized digital agility, security, and cost savings.

According to the survey, 23.5% of respondents claim that SD-WAN adoption is the top network transformation project of 2021, and 28% stated it will remain the top project for 2022 (it was also the top response from a similar survey in 2020). This is likely driven by increases in cloud-oriented deployments that drive complexity, leaving many NetOps teams struggling to gain the visibility needed to manage the performance of SD-WAN deployments.

2. Improving application performance across the entire network is key to refining network operations

Fast, secure, and reliable connections continue to be a foundational component for a business's success. Network downtime is not only disruptive but an incredibly costly mistake that increases by the minute.

When it comes to improving network operations, 20.4% stated that application performance was the top priority. This was followed closely by end-to-end network monitoring.

Today's workers need steady and consistent access to collaborative applications — a priority for many of those we surveyed. Again, highlighting that organizations have a low tolerance for the disruption and downtime associated with poor application performance.

3. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIOps) are driving most network technology decisions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can address complex challenges in real-time based on its ability to intelligently detect and recognize malicious or abnormal activities on the network.

AI-powered networks utilized by the healthcare industry have seen a tremendous boom in recent years, empowering medical professionals with quick decisions about patients.

NetOps teams, including those we surveyed, show an increased interest in AIOps or advanced analytical tools that can assist in baselining and monitoring complex data. Not surprisingly, technology decisions continue to be driven by advances in AI and ML technologies with more than 33% of respondents identifying it as a disruptive force that continues to influence their buying decisions.

When looking to 2022, nearly 16% of respondents identified SASE as an area that will increasingly impact decisions.

4. Business goals are heavily tied to collaboration between NetOps and SecOps

Enterprises understand that their network is no longer a collection of technology assets but a core component to business success. To deliver maximum value and easily support future initiatives, organizations must ensure the network meets business objectives, have full network and application visibility for better decisions, and reduce the cost of operating the network.

Increasing visibility, creating a more secure environment, and expanding upon cloud-first strategies are all high priorities for NetOps. Security was overwhelmingly the leading factor among NetOps professionals concerned with meeting business goals. The survey found that nearly 45% of respondents are focused on improving security. In addition, 17.5% of respondents are focused on improving collaboration between NetOps and SecOps to be more agile and reduce operational costs. This need for more visibility across teams is crucial for collaboration around network performance and security.

It's no secret that IT organizations are adopting disruptive technologies like SD-WAN and cloud, to support digital transformation. Unfortunately, network operations teams often lack the visibility to successfully enable these data-driven change initiatives. This report highlights some of the key area's teams are focused on now and as they move into 2022. It's clear that companies are working to better manage large and complex networks by unifying and simplifying the collection, correlation, and presentation of the application and network data, making it actionable for network management teams.

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Key NetOps Priorities for 2021 and 2022

Jay Botelho
Learn more about LiveAction

Today, business transformation is being driven by remote workforces, the proliferation of data, increasing IT complexity and decreasing budgets and resources. And there's never been a better time to optimize IT efficiency through infrastructure modernization initiatives. The reality is that applications and data no longer need to reside on-premises. The migration to public, hybrid cloud, and SD-WAN environments are adding even more complexity to the daunting task of managing and monitoring the network. As global and emerging technology trends continue to drive the network to evolve at an accelerated pace, we wanted to better understand the current trends and challenges these teams face.

As a result, LiveAction conducted a survey of networking professionals that on average manage more than 500 networking devices at organizations with more than 600 employees. Let's dive into four of the key insights revealed in this report.

1. Deploying or expanding SD-WAN solutions remains the top network transformation priority

The highest priority projects for 2022 are not surprisingly aligned with a move away from antiquated technology in favor of optimized digital agility, security, and cost savings.

According to the survey, 23.5% of respondents claim that SD-WAN adoption is the top network transformation project of 2021, and 28% stated it will remain the top project for 2022 (it was also the top response from a similar survey in 2020). This is likely driven by increases in cloud-oriented deployments that drive complexity, leaving many NetOps teams struggling to gain the visibility needed to manage the performance of SD-WAN deployments.

2. Improving application performance across the entire network is key to refining network operations

Fast, secure, and reliable connections continue to be a foundational component for a business's success. Network downtime is not only disruptive but an incredibly costly mistake that increases by the minute.

When it comes to improving network operations, 20.4% stated that application performance was the top priority. This was followed closely by end-to-end network monitoring.

Today's workers need steady and consistent access to collaborative applications — a priority for many of those we surveyed. Again, highlighting that organizations have a low tolerance for the disruption and downtime associated with poor application performance.

3. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIOps) are driving most network technology decisions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can address complex challenges in real-time based on its ability to intelligently detect and recognize malicious or abnormal activities on the network.

AI-powered networks utilized by the healthcare industry have seen a tremendous boom in recent years, empowering medical professionals with quick decisions about patients.

NetOps teams, including those we surveyed, show an increased interest in AIOps or advanced analytical tools that can assist in baselining and monitoring complex data. Not surprisingly, technology decisions continue to be driven by advances in AI and ML technologies with more than 33% of respondents identifying it as a disruptive force that continues to influence their buying decisions.

When looking to 2022, nearly 16% of respondents identified SASE as an area that will increasingly impact decisions.

4. Business goals are heavily tied to collaboration between NetOps and SecOps

Enterprises understand that their network is no longer a collection of technology assets but a core component to business success. To deliver maximum value and easily support future initiatives, organizations must ensure the network meets business objectives, have full network and application visibility for better decisions, and reduce the cost of operating the network.

Increasing visibility, creating a more secure environment, and expanding upon cloud-first strategies are all high priorities for NetOps. Security was overwhelmingly the leading factor among NetOps professionals concerned with meeting business goals. The survey found that nearly 45% of respondents are focused on improving security. In addition, 17.5% of respondents are focused on improving collaboration between NetOps and SecOps to be more agile and reduce operational costs. This need for more visibility across teams is crucial for collaboration around network performance and security.

It's no secret that IT organizations are adopting disruptive technologies like SD-WAN and cloud, to support digital transformation. Unfortunately, network operations teams often lack the visibility to successfully enable these data-driven change initiatives. This report highlights some of the key area's teams are focused on now and as they move into 2022. It's clear that companies are working to better manage large and complex networks by unifying and simplifying the collection, correlation, and presentation of the application and network data, making it actionable for network management teams.

Related Links

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Clearing the Path to AI: Why Vendor Consolidation Matters Now

Enterprises are under pressure to scale AI quickly. Yet despite considerable investment, adoption continues to stall. One of the most overlooked reasons is vendor sprawl ... In reality, no organization deliberately sets out to create sprawling vendor ecosystems. More often, complexity accumulates over time through well-intentioned initiatives, such as enterprise-wide digital transformation efforts, point solutions, or decentralized sourcing strategies ...

Cold Data, Hot Problem: Why AI Is Rewriting Enterprise Storage Strategy

Nearly every conversation about AI eventually circles back to compute. GPUs dominate the headlines while cloud platforms compete for workloads and model benchmarks drive investment decisions. But underneath that noise, a quieter infrastructure challenge is taking shape. The real bottleneck in enterprise AI is not processing power, it is the ability to store, manage and retrieve the relentless volumes of data that AI systems generate, consume and multiply ...

Observability at a Crossroads: AI, Economics, Complexity and the Enduring Power of Open Source

The 2026 Observability Survey from Grafana Labs paints a vivid picture of an industry maturing fast, where AI is welcomed with careful conditions, SaaS economics are reshaping spending decisions, complexity remains a defining challenge, and open standards continue to underpin it all ...

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The observability industry has an evolving relationship with AI. We're not skeptics, but it's clear that trust in AI must be earned ... In Grafana Labs' annual Observability Survey, 92% said they see real value in AI surfacing anomalies before they cause downtime. Another 91% endorsed AI for forecasting and root cause analysis. So while the demand is there, customers need it to be trustworthy, as the survey also found that the practitioners most enthusiastic about AI are also the most insistent on explainability ...

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In the modern enterprise, the conversation around AI has moved past skepticism toward a stage of active adoption. According to our 2026 State of IT Trends Report: The Human Side of Autonomous AI, nearly 90% of IT professionals view AI as a net positive, and this optimism is well-founded. We are seeing agentic AI move beyond simple automation to actively streamlining complex data insights and eliminating the manual toil that has long hindered innovation. However, as we integrate these autonomous agents into our ecosystems, the fundamental DNA of the IT role is evolving ...

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AI workloads require an enormous amount of computing power ... What's also becoming abundantly clear is just how quickly AI's computing needs are leading to enterprise systems failure. According to Cockroach Labs' State of AI Infrastructure 2026 report, enterprise systems are much closer to failure than their organizations realize. The report ... suggests AI scale could cause widespread failures in as little as one year — making it a clear risk for business performance and reliability.

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The quietest week your engineering team has ever had might also be its best. No alarms going off. No escalations. No frantic Teams or Slack threads at 2 a.m. Everything humming along exactly as it should. And somewhere in a leadership meeting, someone looks at the metrics dashboard, sees a flat line of incidents and says: "Seems like things are pretty calm over there. Do we really need all those people?" ... I've spent many years in engineering, and this pattern keeps repeating ...

Observability Costs Rising Faster Than Value

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If your best engineers spend their days sorting tickets and resetting access, you are wasting talent. New global data shows that employees in the IT sector rank among the least motivated across industries. They're under a lot of pressure from many angles. Pressure to upskill and uncertainty around what agentic AI means for job security is creating anxiety. Meanwhile, these roles often function like an on-call job and require many repetitive tasks ...