State of the Network
VIAVI Solutions completes 18th global State of the Network Study
Since 2007, the State of the Network Study has explored how IT teams manage network performance, security, and IT operations across increasingly complex environments. Each year, we survey professionals responsible for network, application, and infrastructure support to understand their priorities, challenges, and evolving strategies.
Now in its 18th edition, the study continues our partnership with Omdia from Informa TechTarget, and Principal Analysts Jim Frey and John Grady—building on the expanded analysis introduced in the previous year. This collaboration combines independent research with expert insight to examine how organizations are adapting to hybrid infrastructure, new technologies, growing data volumes and security threats – all while budgets are limited and teams aren't getting a break.
2027 State of the Network Study
More than 750 IT professionals across 7 countries have shared how they’re addressing today’s most urgent network and security challenges—meeting the demands of hybrid infrastructure, rising cloud complexity, and increasing pressure to detect, analyze and resolve issues faster, while improving performance without compromising security.
2025/26 State of the Network
Tracks the evolution of packet analysis, network observability practices, and network performance monitoring—highlighting the growing impact of unified visibility and NetSecOps alignment on enterprise operations.
2024/25 State of the Network
Explores how IT teams are adopting network observability strategies, utilizing monitoring tools, and leveraging packet and flow data to keep up with constantly evolving hybrid cloud environments.
2023 State of the Network
Captures the tenacity of IT teams as they rise to the many challenges of maintaining peak application and network performance.
2021 State of the Network
As we emerge from the ashes of challenging times, IT embraces digital transformation to resolve the skills gap, UC issues, and cyberattack response.
2020 State of the Network
In this age of dynamic disruption, this year's study uncovers that comprehensive visibility is essential to maintaining optimal IT service delivery.
2019 State of the Network
Increasing partnerships between network and security teams proves to be a critical strategy for enterprise IT data and resource protection.
2018 State of the Network
With evolving network infrastructure, IT teams are challenged to maintain visibility into performance.
2017 State of the Network
New threats emerge prompting increased involvement of network teams in security issues.
2016 State of the Network
The adoption and management of new cloud and hybrid IT environments has challenged the enterprise in surprising ways.
2015 State of the Network
Network teams are taking on additional responsibilities in response to more sophisticated attacks. Security has become everyone's business.
2014 State of the Network
Network professionals reveal application challenges, bandwidth demand, and real attitudes towards SDN defining it as a "road trip without a map."
2013 State of the Network
Uncover how IT teams stretched thin monitoring new technologies of Cloud, Big Data, and mobile, are best coping with these opportunities.
2012 State of the Network
Application troubleshooting challenges are top of mind for IT professionals, how do they deal with bandwidth crunches and the impact of cloud?
2010 State of the Network
With cloud and virtualization really hitting mainstream, how are network professionals dealing with these new black holes?
2009 State of the Network
Facing an economic downturn and tightening budgets, cost-conscious network engineers are embracing to maximize productivity and visibility.
2008 State of the Network
Discover critical troubleshooting trends and delve in-depth into the adoption and challenges of VoIP, MPLS and higher network speeds.
2007 State of the Network
With VoIP shifting to near mainstream with 45 percent adoption, what are the chief performance and monitoring concerns network teams face?