6 Predictions for the Network Management Market in 2019
Each year, it seems like new technologies emerge and progress at a faster clip than ever before. And each year, businesses do their best to keep pace. In 2018, digital transformation has been at the top of every CIO’s mind, along with the technology initiatives that support these transitions. From SD-WAN technology, machine learning and multi-cloud deployments to intent-based networking and edge computing, these emerging technology trends continue to present a wealth of both challenges and opportunities for businesses, while changing how Network Operations (NetOps) teams approach network management.
As we close out the year, it’s important to examine these trends carefully and look forward at how the market might evolve in the coming months. The best way to construct an effective networking strategy for the next year is to remain aware of the changes we’re likely to encounter and ensure that you’re equipped with the network performance management and diagnostics (NPMD) solutions and partners necessary to meet them head-on.That’s why LiveAction has assembled a list of key industry predictions for the network management market in 2019. Here are six ways we expect the market to develop over the next 12 months:
1. SD-WAN Adoption to Exceed 50 Percent: “Adoption of SD-WAN will accelerate and hit more than 50 percent by the end of 2019, far exceeding the already bullish predictions by analysts. This accelerated pace of adoption will be driven by a clear and compelling value proposition that presents companies with significant financial benefits while offering the promise of maintaining (or improving) current application performance and end-user experience. And the rapid emergence of managed enterprise SD-WAN services by global service providers offers a viable alternative to do-it-yourself for resource constrained organizations. We’ve reached the point in the adoption curve where companies of all sizes will aggressively move forward to capture the financial benefits of SD-WAN technology.” – Brooks Borcherding, CEO at LiveAction
2. Consolidation Will Continue to Transform the SD-WAN Market: “The trend of consolidation among SD-WAN providers will continue next year, led by a combination of strategic acquisitions from established providers and a couple early innovators. What we’re witnessing parallels the emergence of Cloud and the consolidation of first-generation Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers almost 10 years ago. This is when Verizon acquired Terremark, when Time Warner Cable acquired my company, NaviSite, and when IBM purchased Softlayer. And these moves were accompanied by independent firms like Rackspace and, of course, AWS setting the stage for the next phase of Cloud. I predict that we’ll see exactly the same trend with SD-WAN, which has already started with early leaders VeloCloud going to VMWare and Viptela being snapped up by Cisco. I expect a couple of the early frontrunners such as Silver Peak to remain, but many others that are struggling to achieve critical mass should exit with a strategic sale.” – Brooks Borcherding, CEO at LiveAction
3. Multi-Cloud to Drive Heightened Demand for Extensive Network Visibility: “As enterprises continue with multi-cloud adoption in 2019, NPMD vendors will need to cover larger and more complex network footprints for customers by providing increased visibility across existing campuses, WANs, datacenters and public clouds. I expect to see NPMD vendors ingesting more and varied telemetry, and providing more analytics to help organizations understand the distributed and dynamic networks that are increasingly being controlled by software-defined networks (SDN) in each domain. NPMD vendors will need to continue integrating these controllers to help enterprises manage the network from end to end.” – John Smith, Founder and CTO at LiveAction
4. Personalized User Experiences Will Spur Expectations for Granular Network Data Analytics: “In 2019, digital transformation will continue to drive personalized user experiences (for example, retail’s location-based customer loyalty programs). For these to be successful and fluid, NetOps teams will need new levels of network granularity when looking at real-time end-to-end user performance data, including insights by site, by application, and by overlay tunnels and service provider.” – Mark Milinkovich, Director of Product Marketing at LiveAction
5. The Role of NetOps in Business Success to be Further Recognized and Supported: “Network-centric businesses will finally go all-in on creating and supporting NetOps teams as a more agile organizing principle. As a result, next year we’ll see these teams demanding more integrated network management platforms that optimize analytics and workflows to enable the consolidation of legacy IT monitoring tools and dashboards (tool sprawl).” – Mark Milinkovich, Director of Product Marketing at LiveAction
6. Unified Network Management Platforms Will Become the New Standard: “In 2019, as the adoption of software-defined networks accelerates, there will be an increase in the number of cloud service portals and screens DevOps is required to monitor. This will put a premium on network monitoring solutions that can deliver comprehensive end-to-end multi-domain, multi-vendor visibility into SD-WAN and SD-Access service overlays and performance KPIs. Organizations that fail to do this will see continued tools sprawl, which will result in added complexity and inefficiency when looking to resolve incidents quickly and/or deliver a premium service.” – Mark Milinkovich, Director of Product Marketing at LiveActionIt’s hard to believe that the year is almost over. At LiveAction, we set out to define the next generation of NPMD in 2018 and we’ve taken major steps forward toward that vision through our acquisition and integration of Savvius technology, which has enabled us to deliver the market’s most holistic network management solution. As 2019 looms nearer, keep these six network management industry predictions in mind to ensure that you’re prepared for the coming shifts.
To learn more about how LiveAction can help you simplify your network and deal with these ever-changing network trends, visit our product page or request a LiveNX demo today.LiveAction Staff
Dec. 6, 2018
