The document discusses the evolving role of network professionals and key trends in networking. It finds that most network professionals feel their role is becoming more strategic and business oriented, and that collaboration between network teams and other IT teams is successful. Emerging technologies that are transforming networking include edge computing, hyperconverged infrastructure, converged infrastructure, software-defined networking, and SD-WAN. Security is also a major focus and challenge for network teams. The top security concerns are maintaining network security while ensuring connectivity, protecting against data breaches, and ensuring availability. Over half of network professionals have plans to implement various emerging technologies in the next year.

1. 10%
The Network Role is Evolving
feel that the role of the
networking professional is
becoming more strategic/
business oriented
79%
agree that collaboration
between the network team and
other IT teams is successful in
driving innovation
82%
agree that the network
management team is
communicating with the
CIO more than ever before
71%
of network professionals
are initiating
collaboration efforts
84%
say the network management
team is communicating with
LOB more than ever before
69% of network professionals
expect their job to become
more challenging
84%
Emerging Technologies
What’s Transforming the Network?
EDGE COMPUTING:
Edge Computing allows
the processing of
information to be
performed closer to
where it is being
collected/generated.
This is fundamentally
changing the network
by letting organizations
analyze important data
in near real-time.
HYPERCONVERGED
INFRASTRUCTURE:
Software-centric
architecture that integrates
compute, storage,
virtualization (hypervisor),
and management on
commodity hardware that’s
supported by a single
vendor. Since
Hyperconverged
Infrastructure is
software-defined, the
components are essentially
integrated and cannot be
separated.
CONVERGED
INFRASTRUCTURE:
A hardware-centric,
building block
infrastructure approach
that integrates compute
and other components
such as storage and
servers on commodity
hardware supported by
a single vendor. In a
converged system, the
components can be
broken apart and used
on their own.
SOFTWARE-DEFINED
NETWORKING (SDN):
Involves the decoupling
of the network's control
and data forwarding
planes, and enables
automated
provisioning, network
programmability,
service chaining, and
integration with cloud
orchestration systems.
SD-WAN TECHNOLOGY:
Enables you to augment
existing MPLS—
multi-protocol label (a WAN
technology where a user has
full control over traffic
engineering) links—with
lower cost Internet, Ethernet
or wireless alternatives, and
balance the traffic across the
mix based on priority,
availability, performance, etc.
Budgets & Investments
Average IT Budget
$137 million(up $12M from 2017) expect their organization’s total IT budget to
increase over the next 12 months
43%
View additional IDG research on technology trends and IT decision-maker insight. Source: 2018 State of the Network Survey, Network World #StateoftheNetwork | @NetworkWorld @IDGWorld
IDG Communications, Inc.
Technology areas expecting an
increase in budget allocation
Ensuring Availability
(uptime)
Improving Data
Security
Improving Network
Speed/Performance
53%
53%
53%
Network
Security
Application
Development
Cloud
Services
Machine
Learning
(new for 2018)
Analytics/Data
Management
2017
2018
55%
61%
50%
61%
69%
60%
55%
43%
47%
Primary Drivers for
Network Investments
Ensuring Business
Continuity
Improving Customer
Experience
51%
45%
Securing the Network
say the network team is spending more time on
security initiatives today than in years past
82% of network professionals say that network
security is their primary area of responsibility60%
say that the network management team finds it
challenging to balance availability vs. a secure network69%
What are the top challenges related to security and access to data?
Maintaining network
security while assuring
network connectivity
#
1 Protecting
against data
breaches/leaks
#
2 Ensuring availability
(uptime)
#
3
Current and Future Network-Security Initiatives
On the radar/actively researching
Data Loss
Prevention
Corporate
Data Encryption
ID Management
Solutions
36%
33% 32%
Budget Increases for Security Related Tools
Network Security
Compliance
Disaster Recovery
61%
46%
42%
IT Governance
Business
Continuity
37%
36%
Network Professionals Are
Reshaping IT Strategy
How Emerging Technologies, Budgets & Investments,
and Security Influence the Network Role
of networking
professionals have plans
for Edge Computing
56%
have plans to implement
hyperconverged
infrastructure
(increases to 73% for
enterprise organizations)
63%
have plans to implement
converged infrastructure
(increases to 76% for
enterprise organizations)
have plans for SD-WAN
technology
63%
have plans for SDN
technology
64%69%
76%
73%