IT leaders are doubling down on cloud investments and services to help support hybrid workforces, which is having a transformational impact on networking and security, according to new research from unified SASE solutions provider Aryaka.
According to the San Mateo, Calif.-based company’s annual Enterprise Network Transformation report, 98% of IT leaders say they plan to increase their investment in cloud services despite a growing fear of a looming recession.
In addition, 94% of organizations say SASE will play a larger role in their networking and security plans, and 62% plan to eliminate multiprotocol label switching from their operations.
The company says these trends highlight the ongoing shift to the cloud from traditional IT to help support hybrid and remote work models, but also indicate that enterprise IT leaders see networking and security as vital to their organizations’ long-tern success.
According to the report, 47% of IT leaders say their organization will accelerate cloud and network services adoption despite economic uncertainties, which suggests that IT leaders recognize the ability for cloud to help support distributed work and lead to better application performance and security.
Other findings suggest that organizations are reinventing how they think about security in the wake of the pandemic and distributed work. The survey found that 90% of IT leaders believe that zero trust network access is a crucial component of SD-WAN and SASE services, while 98% say hybrid work has increased the need for new network and security solutions.
An overwhelming 99% of IT leaders said hybrid work has changed the way they view managing networks and security, but the report also indicates that organizations are still behind when it comes to hybrid work plans as 58% say they need plans for a hybrid workforce immediately, while 39% said they need plans in the next 6-12 months. Another 3% said they need those plans more than a year out.
The report ultimately concludes that SASE and network-as-a-service solutions are now critical to solving the problem of network complexity and security. According to Aryaka, 96% of C-level IT leaders say managed services and network-as-a-service will play a larger role in 2023.
In a statement, Aryaka CEO Matt Carter says businesses need to be able to be flexible, adaptable and nimble.
“Our report indicates that the vast majority of CIOs, CISOs and IT leaders are preparing for this uncertainty by investing in and adopting architecture, policies and technologies that converge networking and security, as these disciplines are critical to business success,” Carter says.
If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!
Leave a Reply