Modern data centers are under immense pressure to deliver always-on services. Reliability has emerged as the top priority for IT leaders, surpassing ease of integration and operational simplicity. Downtime is no longer just an inconvenience—it poses direct risks to revenue, customer trust, and SLA compliance.
This new market study report from Futurum Research, in partnership with Nokia, explores the forces shaping the future of data center networking. Based on a global survey of IT leaders, it identifies the top criteria for network investment, the frequency and causes of outages, and the barriers organizations face in improving reliability.
The research highlights how leaders are prioritizing automation, AIOps, and modernization strategies to reduce human error, mitigate hardware and software failures, and ensure resilient performance across hybrid environments. Readers will gain practical insights into the metrics, investments, and strategies that will define the next era of data center networking.
In this report, you will learn:
- Why reliability is the #1 decision criterion, selected by 86% of IT leaders.
- How common downtime is—74% of organizations experienced outages in the past year.
- The KPIs and SLAs most organizations use to track and enforce reliability.
- The top barriers to reliability, from compliance complexity to software bugs.
- Where organizations are investing next, including automation, AIOps, and modernization.
If you are interested in learning more, be sure to download your copy of The Data Center Networking Imperative: Key Trends Driving the Next Era of Data Centers today.
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Author Information
Mitch Ashley is VP and Practice Lead of Software Lifecycle Engineering for The Futurum Group. Mitch has over 30+ years of experience as an entrepreneur, industry analyst, product development, and IT leader, with expertise in software engineering, cybersecurity, DevOps, DevSecOps, cloud, and AI. As an entrepreneur, CTO, CIO, and head of engineering, Mitch led the creation of award-winning cybersecurity products utilized in the private and public sectors, including the U.S. Department of Defense and all military branches. Mitch also led managed PKI services for broadband, Wi-Fi, IoT, energy management and 5G industries, product certification test labs, an online SaaS (93m transactions annually), and the development of video-on-demand and Internet cable services, and a national broadband network.
Mitch shares his experiences as an analyst, keynote and conference speaker, panelist, host, moderator, and expert interviewer discussing CIO/CTO leadership, product and software development, DevOps, DevSecOps, containerization, container orchestration, AI/ML/GenAI, platform engineering, SRE, and cybersecurity. He publishes his research on futurumgroup.com and TechstrongResearch.com/resources. He hosts multiple award-winning video and podcast series, including DevOps Unbound, CISO Talk, and Techstrong Gang.
Scott Robohn
Scott Robohn is CEO and Co-Founder of Solutional, and has over 30 years of experience in network operations, design/architecture, technical support, technical sales, executive leadership, and consulting. He works with clients on issues in Networking, Automation, Operations, AI, Cloud, Security, and Emerging Tech. He is also a co-founder of the Network Automation Forum and creator/producer/host of the Total Network Operations (TNOps) project.
