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The Struggle Is Real: Multi-Cloud Network Monitoring Isn't Always Easy

Robert Gates
Enterprise Management Associates

Everyone has visibility into their multi-cloud networking environment, but only some are happy with what they see.

Unfortunately, this continues a trend.

According to EMA's latest research, Multi-Cloud Networking: Connecting and Securing the Future, most network teams have some end-to-end visibility across their multi-cloud networks. Still, only 23.6% are fully satisfied with their multi-cloud network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities.

EMA WEBINAR TOMORROW JAN 31: MULTI-CLOUD NETWORKING.

More importantly, EMA found that overall multi-cloud networking success correlates strongly with monitoring and troubleshooting satisfaction.

Better visibility and control into multi-cloud networks is an area that EMA predicts will be a significant focus of enterprise network teams during the next few years. Public cloud and multi-cloud adoption are the primary drivers of enterprise network operations strategies, and pain points such as monitoring and improved visibility will continue to be a focus.

We typically ask IT pros in our surveys about their satisfaction with various components of their network environment. What is often most alarming is when the people closest to an operation are the least satisfied. In this case, members of network engineering teams were the least satisfied with their multi-cloud networking monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities.


In a recent conversation with EMA, a network architect at a $15 billion retailer highlighted a need for more visibility to monitor the cloud network as his top challenge. "Once [traffic] goes into Azure, we don't have much visibility into what it does. Knock on wood. For the most part, it works. But it doesn't always work."

Network teams are generally less satisfied with multi-cloud network visibility partly because of the deep, comprehensive, and complete visibility they are accustomed to having with their on-premises environments.

Take, for example, a senior network engineer at a large university hospital system and medical school. He told us he has visibility into everything on-premises but called his cloud environment "opaque." He said, "We don't know if something is wrong, and we don't get alerts if a region is having a problem."

His team can see that a cloud link is up, but that is about all. He points at a poor integration between on-premises networks and the cloud as the source of trouble and seeks visibility into cloud traffic and interfaces in the cloud. "It's possible [to get this visibility], but it needs to be done from the beginning," he said.

Another area for improvement is collaboration gaps with teams and tools that offer better monitoring and visibility into the multi-cloud network.

The senior network engineer also told us he finds working with his cloud teams on networking and security issues difficult. He finds them reluctant to give the networking team visibility into their environment and doesn't trust them to do what's right.

These struggles have led enterprises to acquire new third-party monitoring tools. While that helps to improve observability across the multi-cloud network, others are simply trying to adapt their existing tools. Others use the native monitoring capabilities of their multi-cloud networking providers in hopes of closing their visibility gaps. Network teams are adopting multiple approaches to improve visibility into multi-cloud networks, but EMA research demonstrates that they have more work to do.

To hear more insights from EMA's new "Multi-Cloud Networking" research report, please join the webinar on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern.

Robert Gates is Senior Analyst, Network Infrastructure and Operations, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA)

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The Struggle Is Real: Multi-Cloud Network Monitoring Isn't Always Easy

Robert Gates
Enterprise Management Associates

Everyone has visibility into their multi-cloud networking environment, but only some are happy with what they see.

Unfortunately, this continues a trend.

According to EMA's latest research, Multi-Cloud Networking: Connecting and Securing the Future, most network teams have some end-to-end visibility across their multi-cloud networks. Still, only 23.6% are fully satisfied with their multi-cloud network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities.

EMA WEBINAR TOMORROW JAN 31: MULTI-CLOUD NETWORKING.

More importantly, EMA found that overall multi-cloud networking success correlates strongly with monitoring and troubleshooting satisfaction.

Better visibility and control into multi-cloud networks is an area that EMA predicts will be a significant focus of enterprise network teams during the next few years. Public cloud and multi-cloud adoption are the primary drivers of enterprise network operations strategies, and pain points such as monitoring and improved visibility will continue to be a focus.

We typically ask IT pros in our surveys about their satisfaction with various components of their network environment. What is often most alarming is when the people closest to an operation are the least satisfied. In this case, members of network engineering teams were the least satisfied with their multi-cloud networking monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities.


In a recent conversation with EMA, a network architect at a $15 billion retailer highlighted a need for more visibility to monitor the cloud network as his top challenge. "Once [traffic] goes into Azure, we don't have much visibility into what it does. Knock on wood. For the most part, it works. But it doesn't always work."

Network teams are generally less satisfied with multi-cloud network visibility partly because of the deep, comprehensive, and complete visibility they are accustomed to having with their on-premises environments.

Take, for example, a senior network engineer at a large university hospital system and medical school. He told us he has visibility into everything on-premises but called his cloud environment "opaque." He said, "We don't know if something is wrong, and we don't get alerts if a region is having a problem."

His team can see that a cloud link is up, but that is about all. He points at a poor integration between on-premises networks and the cloud as the source of trouble and seeks visibility into cloud traffic and interfaces in the cloud. "It's possible [to get this visibility], but it needs to be done from the beginning," he said.

Another area for improvement is collaboration gaps with teams and tools that offer better monitoring and visibility into the multi-cloud network.

The senior network engineer also told us he finds working with his cloud teams on networking and security issues difficult. He finds them reluctant to give the networking team visibility into their environment and doesn't trust them to do what's right.

These struggles have led enterprises to acquire new third-party monitoring tools. While that helps to improve observability across the multi-cloud network, others are simply trying to adapt their existing tools. Others use the native monitoring capabilities of their multi-cloud networking providers in hopes of closing their visibility gaps. Network teams are adopting multiple approaches to improve visibility into multi-cloud networks, but EMA research demonstrates that they have more work to do.

To hear more insights from EMA's new "Multi-Cloud Networking" research report, please join the webinar on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern.

Robert Gates is Senior Analyst, Network Infrastructure and Operations, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA)

Hot Topics

The Latest

While companies adopt AI at a record pace, they also face the challenge of finding a smart and scalable way to manage its rapidly growing costs. This requires balancing the massive possibilities inherent in AI with the need to control cloud costs, aim for long-term profitability and optimize spending ...

Telecommunications is expanding at an unprecedented pace ... But progress brings complexity. As WanAware's 2025 Telecom Observability Benchmark Report reveals, many operators are discovering that modernization requires more than physical build outs and CapEx — it also demands the tools and insights to manage, secure, and optimize this fast-growing infrastructure in real time ...

As businesses increasingly rely on high-performance applications to deliver seamless user experiences, the demand for fast, reliable, and scalable data storage systems has never been greater. Redis — an open-source, in-memory data structure store — has emerged as a popular choice for use cases ranging from caching to real-time analytics. But with great performance comes the need for vigilant monitoring ...

Kubernetes was not initially designed with AI's vast resource variability in mind, and the rapid rise of AI has exposed Kubernetes limitations, particularly when it comes to cost and resource efficiency. Indeed, AI workloads differ from traditional applications in that they require a staggering amount and variety of compute resources, and their consumption is far less consistent than traditional workloads ... Considering the speed of AI innovation, teams cannot afford to be bogged down by these constant infrastructure concerns. A solution is needed ...

AI is the catalyst for significant investment in data teams as enterprises require higher-quality data to power their AI applications, according to the State of Analytics Engineering Report from dbt Labs ...

Misaligned architecture can lead to business consequences, with 93% of respondents reporting negative outcomes such as service disruptions, high operational costs and security challenges ...

A Gartner analyst recently suggested that GenAI tools could create 25% time savings for network operational teams. Where might these time savings come from? How are GenAI tools helping NetOps teams today, and what other tasks might they take on in the future as models continue improving? In general, these savings come from automating or streamlining manual NetOps tasks ...

IT and line-of-business teams are increasingly aligned in their efforts to close the data gap and drive greater collaboration to alleviate IT bottlenecks and offload growing demands on IT teams, according to The 2025 Automation Benchmark Report: Insights from IT Leaders on Enterprise Automation & the Future of AI-Driven Businesses from Jitterbit ...

A large majority (86%) of data management and AI decision makers cite protecting data privacy as a top concern, with 76% of respondents citing ROI on data privacy and AI initiatives across their organization, according to a new Harris Poll from Collibra ...

According to Gartner, Inc. the following six trends will shape the future of cloud over the next four years, ultimately resulting in new ways of working that are digital in nature and transformative in impact ...