NetOps keeps shifting fast, and the pressure on teams is only getting heavier — more cloud, more complexity, more tickets, more everything. The industry is clearly moving toward a model where intelligence and automation aren’t “nice to have,” they’re the backbone of keeping digital services running.
A few trends are standing out:
AI is officially at the center of NetOps. Teams are moving from reactive troubleshooting to proactive, AI-driven operations. Junior engineers get guided workflows, senior engineers get time back to focus on architecture and innovation, and networks become a lot more resilient.
Cloud keeps accelerating. NetOps leaders are expected to build service delivery models with cloud visibility, performance, and reliability baked in. Hybrid and multi-cloud setups are now the norm, not the exception.
MTTR matters more than ever. Ticket volume is exploding and staffing expertise is stretched thin. The only sustainable path forward is capturing expert knowledge and automating it so issues get resolved consistently and quickly.
Accountability is shifting. IT leadership is being pushed to own service reliability end-to-end — regardless of vendor, infrastructure location, or cloud provider.
Security and automation are converging. Continuous validation, rapid detection, and automated verification are becoming essential as virtualized and cloud-first environments expand the attack surface.
Leaders want real visibility. No more silos, no more “black box” corners of the network. Full top-down context — connectivity, performance, dependencies, and security — is becoming the expectation.
All of this points to one thing: NetOps teams need smarter tools, more automation, and a clear path to preventing outages before they happen.
If you want the full breakdown, check out the complete blog: Predictions for NetOps 2023