Frost & Sullivan conducted a global survey of network decision-makers in October and November 2024 to understand organizations’ perceptions, decisions, and purchases regarding managed network services. This analysis contrasts global responses with regional results. Respondents represented a range of industries and business sizes from 19 countries, further categorized into 4 regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Latin America (LATAM).

As organizations continue their digital transformation journeys, deploying and managing various technologies becomes increasingly complex, primarily due to a lack of in-house skilled IT staff. To overcome complexities and adopt advanced technologies to streamline business operations, organizations often outsource a particular managed service to a third-party provider or partner with a managed network service provider to co-manage or fully manage their network infrastructure.

This study provides a glimpse of organizations' preferences for managing their network infrastructure. The survey results are analyzed and conclusions are drawn, providing directional insights into managed network services, including IT budget allocation, top managed services to engage a third-party provider, challenges in managing multiple technologies/vendors, factors influencing the choice of managed network service provider, preferred partner for SD-WAN and SASE implementation, and perceptions about the most capable provider offering managed network services.

Author: Amrit Singh