Network Management: Why NetOps Is the New DevOps

Today, NetOps is fundamental to network management, underscoring the necessity of physical hardware, even during the push to virtualization, explains Simon Pincus, VP of engineering, Opengear 

To discover why enterprises were investing so heavily in NetOps for secure, resilient network access and IT automation, we surveyed network managers, architects and engineers from companies in the UK, US, Germany and France. According to its research, the majority of those surveyed indicated that for the past two years, their organizations increased investment in NetOps, with only 5% decreasing investment. Furthermore, of those businesses who amplified their NetOps spending, roughly half did so by 50% or more. And nearly all the survey’s participants thought NetOps was to varying degrees important’ to network infrastructure planning.      

Why Are Organizations Using NetOps?

In the minds of those working with the network daily, NetOps’ usefulness is unquestionable. The survey found that the main applications of NetOps were digital transformation, performance improvement, business continuity and cost reduction. Moreover, respondents added that NetOps contributed to remediating and resolving network and system issues, enabling network management and network monitoring. Considering network management, the primary concerns for the surveyed individuals were NetOps functionality and network automation.  

When questioned further concerning what applications and benefits their organizations gain from utilizing NetOps, 41% of respondents said they used the network automation aspect of NetOps to ‘enhance network security.’ NetOps also helped with fixing errors, management as well as ‘accelerating cloud adoption.’ Continuing with security, those organizations (44%) using an independent secure management plan separate from the production network specified that enhanced security was a significant benefit of NetOps. The next two most important benefits were the fast remediation of devices (38%) and remote monitoring (37%).

Security is essential to avoiding network downtime, with the consequences negatively affecting customer satisfaction and profit. Now, with networks more layered than ever, and subsequently more vulnerable than ever organizations are investing in NetOps to enhance security and reduce the potential for downtime. 

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Network Engineers and NetOps

Times have changed for network engineers and so have their responsibilities. With more locations, equipment, and data to manage than ever before, engineers are turning to NetOps to help them expand into their new roles. Plus, the push to invest in NetOps was driven partly by the pandemic and because engineers couldn’t visit sites and had to work remotely. By switching to NetOps and a fully automated approach, they managed to drive agility, improve performance and reduce costs despite limitations.  

While the survey results reveal that only 32% of management or engineering teams completed NetOps training, with more than half stating that they taught themselves, engineers are eager to learn. They understand the advantages of NetOps as shown by 67% of them saying that NetOps in their organizations ‘added value to their role and made their work more rewarding.’ Although companies should make a greater effort to provide in-house training to their staff, the enthusiasm of engineers and the rewards they’ve reaped so far is a testament to why so many businesses are investing in NetOps.     

Network Resilience and Edge Computing   

As mentioned previously, the transition to hybrid work and edge computing propelled the rise of the automated version of NetOps, along with the prioritization of network resilience. According to Grand View Research, Inc.Opens a new window , the global market size of edge computing will reach $61.14 billion US by 2028 while exhibiting a CAGR of 38.4% from 2021 to 2028. Additionally, 87% of network managers, architects and engineers felt that the growth of edge computing will accelerate due to NetOps over the next several years. Nevertheless, the edge presents a complicated mixture of opportunity and challenge. 

Notwithstanding the localized compute power and other network requirements at all the new edge sites, there is a pressing need for improved localized storage, cyber-security, real-time data analytics solutions, and, of course, network resilience. Navigating this spiderweb of complexity necessitates the NetOps approach to network management, which is a proven means of protecting the production network from unintentional misconfiguration and cyberattacks. As a result of efforts to make the edge more resilient, 79% of those surveyed admitted that the resilience at the edge of their organization was better than the data center. 

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A Healthy Network Is Essential to a Healthy Business 

Increasingly, organizations are discovering that NetOps is vital to a healthy and robust network, especially in the new era of hybrid work and edge computing. From facilitating day-to-day functions to remediating a downed network, NetOps helps organizations do more with fewer resources. Put plainly, network decision-makers and IT experts understand that the network is inseparable from most business processes thus, the soaring investment in NetOps. 

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