- Cloud environments (public, private, hybrid): 62%
- Scale (numerous devices, traffic, schema, etc.): 55%
- Lack of needed skillsets: 41%
- False positive alerts: 41%
- Remote employees: 40%
- Alert storms (alerts causing other alerts, noise, etc): 39%
- Next-generation technology (5G, 400gE, SD-WAN, SDN, etc.): 34%
- Not enough network operations personnel: 34%
- Inadequate operations tools: 31%
- IoT devices: 30%
While survey respondents pointed to the technical factors making network observability difficult, the lack of available and skilled candidates also contributes greatly to the struggle to efficiently manage a complex, distributed network environment. The challenges often point enterprise companies to also rely on third-party resources for management and monitoring assistance, but that approach doesn’t alleviate the internal staffing challenges for the long term, the study explains.
The top contributors holding a network team back from growing and becoming more capable of managing increasing complexity and more tasks include:
- Lack of budget: 75%
- Candidates lack needed skillsets: 48%
- Politics (roadblocks, delays, etc.): 47%
- Lack of available candidates: 45%
- Inability to offer competitive compensation: 38%
- Moratorium on hiring: 31%
- Outsourcing strategy: 22%
“The issues of lacking and available skilled candidates are particularly difficult for a company to solve, and while growing expertise internally is a common approach it does mean that low-skilled new hires need a way to contribute,” the report reads. “To help mitigate the challenge, 65% [of respondents] admitted they rely on third-party resources for network operations, but that approach doesn’t often grow expertise internally, which can perpetuate the situation.”
