According to VIAVI’s 2025/2026 State of the Network study, 79% of enterprise organizations are expected to rely more on packet capture this year in an effort to increase mean times to detection (MTTD) and resolution (MTTR).
The study, which is conducted yearly in collaboration with Enterprise Strategy Group, which is now a part of Omdia, shows how IT network and security teams are evolving to meet the needs of hybrid infrastructure, growing cloud complexity, and mounting pressure to identify and fix problems more quickly.
According to 750 professionals worldwide, the findings show a distinct trend toward greater network observability, a renewed dependence on packet capture, an increase in cross-functional cooperation in cloud monitoring, and the quickening convergence of security operations (SecOps) and network operations (NetOps).
According to the survey, MTTD dramatically improved for organizations with strong packet capture; in comparison to those without strong packet capture capacity, twice as many respondents reported a significantly shorter MTTD rate over the previous year.
Furthermore, responders who were proficient in packet capture were nearly 35% more likely to fix problems in less than three hours and four times more likely to do so in less than an hour.
Summary of Key Findings:
- 79% of organizations report growing reliance on packet data, with measurable improvements in MTTD, MTTR, and alert accuracy.
- Organizations with robust packet visibility are four times more likely to achieve MTTR under an hour compared to those without.
- The shift toward multi-cloud environments is driving a 125% increase in collaborative monitoring models.
- 42% of organizations that implemented NetSecOps models reported enhanced security benefits.
- While 92% of organizations reported that they had sufficient budget to meet their needs, 78% believed there was a need for more support to prepare for rising network security threats.
Leadership Comments
“As environments grow more distributed and threats become more dynamic, the path forward is clear. Unified visibility, smarter tooling, and operational alignment are no longer optional – they’re essential,” said Chris Labac, Vice President and General Manager, Network Performance and Threat Solutions, VIAVI. “Packet-level visibility has been proven to accelerate the detection, response, and resolution of network issues. Our report demonstrates that organizations not only understand the need for full fidelity forensics, multi-cloud visibility and NetSecOps alignment, but are actively putting steps in place to improve overall network observability.”
“Networks are under constant threat and permanently stretched, yet what is clear from VIAVI and ESG’s research is that most companies are taking steps to continually improve their uptime. Indeed, despite hard times, investment is set to increase in the overwhelming majority of companies for every single one of the 11 IT solutions we examined,” said Jim Frey, Principal Analyst, Networking, Enterprise Strategy Group from Informa Tech Target. “This means there’s a lot to be positive about, and this research demonstrates exactly where organizations are getting the greatest returns on investment to enable the best practices to be used across the industry.”
VIAVI will be showcasing its unified network and security solution at Cisco Live! booth 2643 from June 8-12 in San Diego, CA.
VIAVI State of the Network Study Is Available Here: 2025/2026 State of the Network study
