2025 Global Managed Network Services: Voice of Customer Survey
Organizations’ Preferences in Managed Network Services
13-Oct-2025
Global
Customer Research
KB8D-01-00-00-00
TE_2025_33949
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
Research Objectives and Methodology
Key Findings
Global Network Services Budget Allocation Increase Compared to 2023
Businesses Worldwide Continue to Prioritize Digitalization
Increasing Distributed Locations Drive the Importance of Network and Application Security
Managing Multiple Network and Technology Vendors is a Complex Task
Organizations Outsource Services That are Difficult to Manage In-House
Managed Network Service Providers Take the Burden of Managing Network Complexity
Managed Services: Choosing the Right Partner
Fully Managed SD-WAN Solutions Continue to be the Customer Favorite
Enterprises Choose Managed SD-WAN Services to Simplify Management
Perspective on SASE Adoption
Key Reasons for SASE Deployment
Preferred Partner for SD-WAN and SASE, Regional
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The Strategic Imperative
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Next Steps
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