DIGITAL

DISRUPTION
AND THE
NETWORK
DRIVING TECH ENABLEMENT, COLLABORATION & INNOVATION

Network
Professional
87%
of network
80%
agree that greater
78%
feel that the
professionals collaboration between network will
Role in the expect their job the network and other become more
Coming Year to become more
challenging
parts of the organization
are driving innovation
important to
ITs mission

WHATS INFLUENCING THESE CHANGES?

Network Investments
Primary Investment Drivers AVERAGE IT BUDGET:
$125 MILLION
Technology areas expecting an
IMPROVING IMPROVING ENSURING increase in budget allocation in 2017
NETWORK SPEED/ DATA SECURITY AVAILABILITY

55% 55%
PERFORMANCE Cloud Services 69% 63% in 2016

61%
Network Security 55% 50% in 2016
Application Development 50% 42% in 2016
Data Management/Analytics 43% 35% in 2016

3rd PLATFORM EXCEEDED 2nd PLATFORM SPENDING

TECHNOLOGY SPENDING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2016
SOURCE: IDC

Technology Involvement: From Research, to Purchase, to Adoption

Network professionals must Daily/weekly collaboration with ...
be aware of tech trends, as
they have responsibility in

6 DIFFERENT
TECH AREAS IT OPERATIONS SYSTEMS
ADMINISTRATION
IT SECURITY

THE TOP 3 ...

Tasked with making tech
purchase decisions
55% NETWORK/SYSTEMS
MANAGEMENT Involved in determining tech
requirements for these technologies:
66% Architecture

52%
66% Network Security
NETWORK 63% Data Management/Analytics
SECURITY
Involved in the the evaluation stage
for these technologies:

51%
68% Architecture
IT OPERATIONS 67% Systems Engineering
66% Network Security

Key Players in Security Practices

82% #1 EMPLOYEE AWARENESS

Security & COOPERATION
challenges PROTECTING AGAINST
say the network team is that network #2 THREATS FROM OUTSIDE
THE ORGANIZATION
involved in security professionals
initiatives to a greater
degree than in the past
face #3 BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS/
DEMONSTRATING ROI

Current and future Status of security vendors

81%
network-security initiatives OF NETWORK PROS ARE
GEARING UP FOR CONFIDENT IN THEIR
INVESTMENTS NETWORK SECURITY
ON THE RADAR/ INSTALLED/ AUTOMATION
ACTIVELY RESEARCHING IN-PRODUCTION

35% Data Loss Prevention
34% Next Generation Firewalls
34% ID Management Solutions
47%
56% Network Security SAY EMERGING VENDORS
ARE EQUALLY AS RISKY
52% Endpoint Security
AS ESTABLISHED
35% Corporate Data Encryption VENDORS

SOURCE: NETWORK WORLD 2017 STATE OF THE NETWORK SURVEY

View additional IDG Enterprise research on technology trends

and IT decision-maker insight at idgenterprise.com
#StateoftheNetwork @NetworkWorld | @IDGEnterprise