The network infrastructure and operations industry is on fire. How do I know? Just look at how busy the Network Infrastructure and Operations practice at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) was in 2025.
In addition to several custom research projects conducted for clients, I published eight independent research reports for EMA’s Network Infrastructure and Operations practice. Vendors provide financial support for these independent reports, but they have no editorial control over the research. Their support is motivated by a need to understand their customers and a need for independent research that validates their messaging.
In a typical year I publish four or five reports. My 2025 research output was the highest of my 11 years as a networking industry analyst, which tells me that the market is experiencing a period of intense innovation and competition.
What follows is an overview of my 2025 research. All this research is free to EMA subscribers. If you are not a subscriber, consider becoming one! The insights in these eight reports will give you a good overview of the dynamics that are driving this industry today. It will also help you as a network engineer to prepare for the future.
In January 2025, I published “Network Observability: Managing Performance Across Hybrid Networks,” a deep examination the tools that enterprise IT organizations use to monitor and troubleshoot their networks. This report is based on a survey of 351 IT professionals.
Key findings;
The full report is an in-depth examination of all aspects of network observability. A network tool architect at a Fortune 500 retailer told me that reading a previous version of this report helped him prepare for the job interview that earned him his current role.
In April 2025, I published “Enterprise Strategies for Hybrid, Multi-cloud Networks,” based on a survey of 354 IT professionals that have a hybrid, multi-cloud networks. This research explored how enterprises build, manage, and secure these hybrid, multi-cloud networks.
The key findings of this research include:
Check out the report to get more details about the above, as well as how network teams are handling observability and security for these networks.
In June 2025, we published “From Scripts to Platforms: Why Homegrown Tools Dominate Network Automation and How Vendors Can Help.” This report is based long, one-on-one interviews with a dozen network automation engineers who are building and maintaining homegrown and open source network automation tools.
The goal of this research was to understand why so many network engineering teams use homegrown tools rather than vendors' products. The research investigates both the benefits and the challenges of such an approach. I also asked engineers to share how they’d like network automation vendors to help them. Most are unwilling to abandon the homegrown automation they have, but they would welcome a vendor that could enhance what they are doing.
The key findings of this research were:
Check out the report to learn how engineers want vendors to enhance what they are doing.
In June 2025, we published “Readying Enterprise Networks For Artificial Intelligence,” based on a survey of 269 IT professionals who were actively engaged with preparing their networks to support AI applications. This research looked at how IT organizations optimize their data center networks for AI workloads and prepare wide-area networks (WAN) for AI traffic. It also asked IT professionals to identify new network observability and security requirements.
Key findings of this research include:
The full report dives into all of the above in detail. It also explores where AI workloads are being deployed and why, what kinds of traffic patterns AI is generating on networks, and what security measures network teams are adopting to protect AI assets.
In August 2025, we published “Cloud Network Traffic Data: Empowering Network and Security Operations in the Hybrid, Multi-Cloud Era.” Based on a survey of 250 IT professionals, this research explores how network and security teams use cloud network traffic data (e.g., packets and flow data) to enhance hybrid, multi-cloud networking and security.
Key findings from this research include:
The full report provides details about how organizations are collecting and analyzing this cloud traffic data. it also explores the challenges these organizations encounter when working with this data.
In September 2025, we published the 2025 EMATM Radar for DNS, DHCP and IP Address Management (DDI). This report serves as a buyers’ guide for DDI solutions. It evaluates and compares 12 solutions from 10 vendors.
The vendors evaluated in this study include BlueCat Networks, Cygna Labs, EfficientIP, FusionLayer, Infoblox, IPv4.Global (formerly 6Connect), ManageEngine, NetBox Labs, SolarWinds, and TCPWave.
In October 2025, we published “Enterprises Embrace AI-Dirven Wi-Fi to Meet Today’s Network Demands.” This report surveyed 152 enterprise Wi-Fi experts about their current wireless networking strategies.
Key findings of this report include:
The full report dives deep into best practices for Wi-Fi operations and it explores how and why requirements for wireless networks are changing.
In December 2025, I published “The Network Source of Truth: How Engineering Teams Establish and Use These Critical Tools.” This research is based on one-on-one interviews with 17 network engineering pros who are engaged with a network source of truth (NSoT) project or solution. This research defined an NSoT as a system or repository that stores, models, and provides programmatic access to network intent data.
Key findings of this research include:
The full report also explores exactly how today’s network engineering teams are establishing NSoTs, the challenges they encounter with these projects, and the innovation they want to see from NSoT tool providers.
This year will be just as busy for the Network Infrastructure and Operations practice. Check out EMA"s 2026 research calendar to see what I have planned. I'm also taking requests, so feel free to suggest a topic.