Respondents in a December 2024 survey shared their self-reported concerns, investment intentions, and attitudes toward network modernization and security.

Based on a survey conducted in December 2024 among 8,065 senior IT and business leaders in 30 international markets*, a network technology firm has announced that respondents had reported significant changes underway in enterprise networking, largely attributed to rising use of AI and increasing digital workloads.

Of those surveyed, 97% had indicated that modernized networks were critical to deploying AI, IoT, and cloud technologies. Additionally, 92% had reported intentions to increase the share of IT spending devoted to networking.

For many respondents, sentiments were that the network was a strategic asset supporting both day-to-day business and ongoing innovation.

Other findings
Among all respondents, 70% had reported experiencing at least one major network disruption in the previous two years, frequently attributing these to congestion, cyberattacks, or software misconfigurations. Also:

  • 95% of respondents, when prompted in the survey, cited their belief that resilient networks were mission-critical, while 99% had agreed to prompts that secure networking was important for their business operations. Also, 94% had indicated an expectation that a modernized network would improve cybersecurity, though the terms “secure networking” and “modernized network” were not defined within the survey instrument.
  • Respondents had estimated the global annual business cost of a major outage at around US$160bn, based on averages reported and company numbers extrapolated by the survey.
  • Survey respondents highlighted adoption of AI tools as a key driver for future network investments, with 51% indicating that automating and personalizing customer journeys was expected to have the greatest revenue impact:
    • 87% had planned to expand their data center capacity, though 74% had reported their current IT infrastructure as insufficient for current AI needs.
    • Technical phrases such as “autonomous AI-powered networks” and “network visibility” were used but not defined in the public-facing materials.
  • 91% of respondents had indicated that improved network infrastructure would directly drive revenue, while 95% had cited anticipated cost savings from more adaptive, smarter networks.
  • 61% had cited siloed or only partially integrated systems as impediments to value; 54% noted incomplete deployments, and 49% reliance on manual oversight.

The survey was commissioned by Cisco.

*Methodology footnote: Eligible participants were responsible for networking strategy at organizations with 250 or more employees. The estimated outage costs were derived from self-reported data and global company counts from a third-party source (Statista). Survey terms such as “modernized network” and “AI-powered networks” were used but not defined for respondents. Any year-on-year comparisons or references to external data sources should be interpreted with caution due to possible variations in methodology and survey scope.