Network Management Megatrends 2026: Automation, Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Networks, and AI Transformation

Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), April 2026

The Network Management Megatrends report examines how IT organizations manage their networks while adapting to major industry disruptions such as cloud transformation and AI. Based on a survey of 352 IT professionals, the report identifies the major trends impacting enterprise network operations and outlines how the most successful teams are tackling their biggest challenges, including:

• The ways that network operations teams are trying to improve their network observability toolsets
• Emerging approaches to automating day-to-day operations
• The current state of managing hybrid, multi-cloud networks
• How IT organizations are retooling network observability to manage AI workloads and traffic on their networks

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