Cisco research highlights network complexity, security challenges

Today’s enterprises need more help managing and securing their distributed networking environments than they ever have, Cisco concludes in its Global Networking Trends Report. The research, released this week, analyzes the networking challenges, IT and business priorities, architectural maturity, and investment strategies of 2,052 IT professionals across 10 global industries.

“Network architectures are more sophisticated, more complex, and spread across more multi-clouds and multi-vendors than ever. IT leaders are also besieged by rising cybersecurity risks, increased demand from new app and workload types, and vastly distributed workforces and infrastructures,” wrote Jonathan Davidson, executive vice president and general manager of Cisco Networking, in a blog about the study. 

Managing and controlling such widely distributed systems are core challenges enterprise network customers face, Davidson stated.

One in five (21%) organizations surveyed are currently using multiple, separate management systems when managing their campus, branch, WAN, data center, and multicloud domains, according to the report, while 39% are leveraging a platform architecture across some networking domains. Using a centralized network platform to help handle new and future environments could resolve those problems, according to Cisco’s data.

Cisco defines a network platform as an integrated system that combines software, policy, and open APIs with an intuitive user interface, advanced telemetry, and automation. It provides a centralized operator experience, end-to-end network management, and an API-driven ecosystem that simplifies operations and enables digital experiences across one or more networking domains. According to the report:

“Adoption of the network platform is anticipated to increase, with nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents expecting to leverage a platform architecture across one or more domains. Of those, 39% expect to scale the platform architecture across all networking domains, greatly simplifying network management and enabling a variety of business, operational, and technical benefits – from open API ecosystems to enhanced IT collaboration across functions, easier integrations, and a rich pool of data. Data aggregated from telemetry across network domains provides an enterprise-wide view that can be used to generate insights from AI analytics, enhancing performance, experience, security, cost efficiency, and sustainability.”

2024 Cisco Global Networking Trends Report

As networks scale to handle new applications in the data center and cloud, the threat landscape grows, Davidson stated. 

According to the report, 40% of IT leaders cite cybersecurity risks as their number one concern impacting network strategy over the next 12 months, and respondents said they were handling this challenge in a couple ways, according to Davidson: “First is integrating network and security processes, technology, and tools, with half of respondents making this their top network security investment over the next two years. Second, is moving more security tools to the cloud to protect the increasingly distributed infrastructure and workforce better.”

When asked about their top network security priorities for the next two years, 52% said the integration of network security into broader IT security functions was their top priority. To that end, 76% of those organizations plan to deploy a secure access service edge (SASE) architecture with integration of SD-WAN and security service edge (SSE) cloud security within the same timeframe, researchers stated.

In addition, 44% of respondents said that faster cybersecurity threat identification and response is the most important benefit expected from the convergence of networking and security technologies, processes, and tools.

“Sharing data and telemetry between networking and security domains was the second ranked benefit for 29% of respondents, followed by providing consistent, secure access to multicloud applications from anywhere for 27% of respondents,” the report stated.

Multicloud environments are prevalent, with 92% of organizations saying they have deployed two or more public cloud providers to host their workloads and 34% using more than four, according to last year’s networking trends report.

“However, each public cloud service provider, private data center, and hybrid cloud environment uses different network and security operational models. Organizations need to address the resulting management complexity with a strategy that enables better visibility and more consistent control of connectivity and security across disparate private and public cloud environments,” researchers stated.

Looking ahead to two years from now, 60% of companies expect to have an integrated multicloud networking and security management platform with common APIs for secure workload mobility, network and application visibility, and policy management, researchers stated. “Additionally, organizations on the leading edge of IT innovations plan to have AIOps-driven automation in place to optimize workload mobility with end-to-end visibility across multicloud, private cloud, and edge networks,” the report found.

On the AI front, there’s the potential for AI to relieve IT teams that lack enough operational support. “The promise of AI is the needed reprieve for IT organizations struggling with a lack of resources and automation to handle basic operational tasks,” Davidson stated. “Only 5% of respondents believe their teams are equipped to deliver the innovations needed to help steer business strategy, satisfy customers, and optimize operations.”

Within two years, 60% of respondents expect AI-enabled predictive automation across all domains to manage and simplify network operations.

Data center upgrades are on tap to enable greater throughput and scalability required for AI workloads; 56% of respondents are planning to deploy Enhanced Ethernet, for example, and 59% of respondents plan to simplify their data center network operations with AIOps within two years, the report stated.

Some other interesting study findings include:

• Today, 32% of organizations said InfiniBand is currently the technology of choice to connect high performance workloads. In two years, 56% said they will deploy a next generation enhanced Ethernet network to support AI workloads.
• Today, 42% of organizations said sustainability is the top area where the network can drive digital business success. In two years, 55% feel IT will be leading their organizations’ sustainability strategy, and they expect network protocol-driven sustainability initiatives like selective powering and the use of low power modes to positively impact sustainability goals.
• Today, 32% of respondents said they don’t have visibility into their IT-related energy consumption or emissions data. But in two-years, 60% expect network-driven energy management solutions to have a significant, positive impact on sustainability strategy.