Network management has never been easy, and the proliferation of IoT devices, the shift to remote working, and the migration of applications to multi-cloud environments are adding new complexities to enterprise networks.
IT executives are grappling with the proliferation of network management tools and employee skills gaps. They also strive to gain visibility in an increasingly fragmented network, including SaaS instances that are not under their direct control.
Even the terminology is constantly evolving. Terms like network monitoring or network management are being replaced by buzzwords like network observability or unified observability, according to a recent report from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).
Whatever terms are used to describe modern network management, there is agreement on what such a platform should include. At the underlying network level, systems need the ability to extract data from logs, traces, events, and other metrics in order to troubleshoot issues, prevent future outages, and optimize network performance through automation.
Moving up, the management platform should also provide application performance management (APM), as well as insights into the customer/user experience, called digital experience management (DEM). Observability platforms are also expanding into DevOps (NetDevOps), they share data with security teams for incident response and vulnerability management, and they leverage artificial intelligence (AIOps).
A single platform that can do it all may not exist. But we’ve identified 10 leading vendors who are working hard to make this happen. This subjective list is heavily weighted toward vendors with broad platforms rather than point products, and vendors that have demonstrated an interest in aggressively expanding their feature sets rather than remaining entrenched in a specific niche.
1. IBM: From Tivoli to Turbonomic
Why they’re here: From its 1996 acquisition of network management vendor Tivoli Systems to its 2020 acquisition of APM innovator Instana, IBM has maintained its assets in network management, mainframe/server infrastructure, applications and cloud-based assets. As one might expect from IBM, there are plenty of product lines: legacy Tivoli systems have been renamed and updated, and products have been added through acquisitions (SevOne for network performance management, QRadar for network security management). IBM develops new products internally, such as IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps.
Power move: Acquired application resource management (ARM) and network performance management (NPM) software provider Turbonomic.
By the numbers: $1.5 billion: The exact figure was not released, but IBM reportedly paid between $1.5 billion and $2 billion for Turbonomic.
Outlook: IBM hopes to provide clients with AI-based automation covering AIOps, application performance and IT resource observability, built on its Red Hat OpenShift cloud platform and delivered as a product or managed service. The challenge is to merge the Turbonomic and Instana acquisitions into a seamless hybrid cloud management architecture that scales from data center mainframes to cloud-based containers.
2. Cisco: Boosting position through key acquisitions
Why they’re here: When you’re the market leader in routers, switches, firewalls, wireless access points, and SD-WAN equipment, and the technology trend is to separate hardware from the overlay management plane, it’s natural to dive in and dive into management layer. Under the umbrella of DNA Center, Cisco provides automated network operations, AIOps, DevOps, SecOps, and customer experience monitoring. Cisco is also trying to achieve full-stack observability through acquisitions.
Power moves: Purchased ThousandEyes for agent-based network performance optimization and AppDynamics for APM.
By the numbers: $1 billion. The amount Cisco paid for ThousandEyes.
Outlook: Cisco has a lot going on, and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of everything. Cisco is working on software-defined networking, intent-based networking, and now it’s pushing something called predictive networking. There is a management product for IoT and another for wireless. Gartner warns that “Cisco’s ‘full-stack observability’ vision promises a unified experience for monitoring across AppDynamics, ThousandEyes and Intersight (cloud operations platform). However, current offerings are still only loosely integrated and lack common installation, user experience or data platform.” For Cisco, the challenge is to continue to drive intelligence and automation across its vast portfolio and ensure that its products are integrated across on-premises and cloud environments.
3. BMC Software: From mainframe to microservices
Why you should join: Founded in 1980 to provide management software for IBM mainframes, today BMC is a private company focused on helping enterprises manage and automate complex IT operations across hybrid cloud environments. Forrester Research said the BMC Helix platform provides IT service management (ITSM), IT operations management (ITOM), enterprise service management (ESM), user self-service portals, AI chatbots, and intelligent and predictive automation. It also integrates with multi-cloud environments to “enable powerful business automation while enabling IT and DevOps to work seamlessly rather than in silos.” Of course, it supports self-managing mainframes through its Automated Mainframe Intelligence product line.
Power moves: Acquired StreamWeaver to enhance its observability, AIOps and cloud migration capabilities.
By the Numbers: BMC works with 86% of the Forbes Global 50.
Outlook: BMC bills itself as a company that helps its clients become “autonomous digital enterprises.” Its management software spans mainframes to Docker containers in the cloud. BMC Helix ServiceOps brings together service and operations management to prevent outages, identify performance issues, perform root cause analysis, and personalize employee and customer experiences. IDC analyst Stephen Elliot said ServiceOps is the wave of the future because it breaks down silos so “cross-department teams can deliver efficient, incident-free services across cloud technologies.”
4. Broadcom: CA AppNeta VMware
Why they’re here: If Broadcom can successfully combine the management tools it acquired with its 2018 acquisitions of CA Technologies (network and infrastructure monitoring and AIOps) and its 2021 acquisition of AppNeta (SaaS-based network performance monitoring and digital experience management) with its upcoming With the coming VMware acquisition, Broadcom could become a multi-cloud management giant.
Power move: Acquired virtualization pioneer VMware.
By the numbers: $61 billion: The amount Broadcom agreed to pay for VMware.
Outlook: Once the VMware acquisition officially closes in late 2023, Broadcom’s plan is to move its current portfolio of software assets into the VMware-branded division. In response to customer concerns about Broadcom’s intentions, President and CEO Hock Tan recently said, “VMware develops future-proof technologies and responds to growing markets. The premise of the Broadcom business case for this transaction is to focus on increasing R&D and execution to Customers see value in a complete portfolio of innovative products—not higher prices.” For its part, VMware has a broad portfolio of software tools, including Tanzu for cloud-native application development, Tanzu for managing virtualization workloads, NSX, and a new cloud-native management service called Aria. So, for Broadcom, the vision is there. It will all come down to execution.
5. Splunk: It all starts with data
Why it’s on the list: As a perennial leader in Gartner’s SIEM vendor rankings, Splunk has become a strong player in observability platforms using its ability to aggregate and analyze large amounts of data. “Splunk is a full-stack, multi-cloud, integrated enterprise solution that combines infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring, digital experience monitoring, real user monitoring, synthesis, log investigation, AIOps and incident response,” GigaOm said.
Power Moves: Splunk has been on an acquisition spree. Over the past few years, it has refined its observability platform with the acquisitions of SignalFx, Omnition, Plumbr, Rigor, Flowmill, and TwinWave Security. (It should also be noted that Cisco has been rumored to be trying to acquire Splunk. However, this potential power move has yet to materialize.)
By the numbers: $1.05 billion: How much Splunk paid for SignalFx.
Outlook: After several quarters of slow growth, Splunk named a new CEO in April 2022: former Proofpoint CEO Gary Steele. The move appears to be a boost for the company, as Splunk reported revenue of $799 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2023, up 32% year over year. Pund-IT analyst Charles King is bullish on Steele. “Not only has he founded and led successful startups, but Steele also has a strong history of providing financial and leadership as a C-suite executive. In other words, he likely understands and values Splunk’s culture while also It also provides the business acumen needed for companies to grow and enter new markets.”
6. SolarWinds: Withstanding hacker attacks
Why They’re Here: When your brand is associated with one of the worst cyberattacks in history, it’s a lot to overcome. But SolarWinds was open and transparent during and after the infamous 2020 hack, and it appears to have weathered the storm. Revenues have stabilized and the company is launching new products and offering new cloud-based services to its large installed base. SolarWinds has been named a leader by analyst firm GigaOm in its 2022 evaluation of network observability and cloud observability solutions.
Power move: Launched a cloud-native IT management service called Observability that can also be used in hybrid cloud environments. Powered by machine learning, the service provides an integrated view of networks, infrastructure, applications and database systems.
By the numbers: $179 million: Before news of the hack broke in late 2020, SolarWinds’ quarterly revenue had been in the $250 million range. After the hack, revenue stabilized at nearly $180 million. Revenue for the third quarter of 2022 was $179 million, down 1% from the third quarter of 2021.
Looks: SolarWinds had some issues to resolve even before it was hacked. Its products are somewhat siled, with the focus primarily on on-premises rather than the cloud. But the company appears to have recognized its weaknesses and taken concrete steps in the right direction. “We are laying the foundation for autonomous operations with monitoring and observability solutions,” said Rohini Kasturi, chief product officer at SolarWinds. “With our hybrid cloud observability and SolarWinds observability products, customers have the flexibility to deploy on private clouds, public clouds or as a service.” According to Gartner analyst Gregg Siegfried, observability is SolarWinds’ next step forward important step. “The bottom line is that as people move to the cloud, they’ve been losing share,” Siegfried added.
7. Dynatrace: Protecting and optimizing software
Why it’s on the list: As one of the next generation of cloud-native observability vendors, Dynatrace provides infrastructure monitoring, APM, application security, digital experience management (DEM), business analytics and more on a platform powered by its Davis AI engine. Cloud automation. Research firm ISG ranks Dynatrace as a leader in cloud native observability and cloud native security. Gartner places Dynatrace in a leadership position for APM.
By the Numbers: 30%: Dynatrace reported second-quarter fiscal 2023 revenue of $279 million, up 30%.
Power move: Launched a new data analytics feature called Grail, which promises unified observability, security and business data analytics.
Looking Ahead: Dynatrace says it exists to “make the world’s software work perfectly.” While perfection may not be achievable, Dynatrace gets high marks for its cloud-native, AI-driven approach. “Quite simply, Dynatrace does it all with observability and is especially powerful with containerized applications,” said Mark Purdy, principal analyst at ISG. “World-class artificial intelligence and automation capabilities make the Dynatrace platform the clear leader.” ” Gartner added: “Dynatrace’s roadmap includes extending the analytics capabilities of its Davis AI engine to new data sources, including expanded OpenTelemetry analytics, and further expanding its capabilities across clouds such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Influence in provider markets. ”
8. Datadog: Keep up with industry leaders
Why they’re here: Datadog started out as a monitoring and security service for cloud applications and has been methodically fleshing out its portfolio to become a platform for enterprises to launch digital transformation initiatives and move applications to the cloud. Datadog offers infrastructure monitoring, APM, device monitoring, cloud workload monitoring, and database monitoring. Gartner named Datadog a Leader in its latest application performance monitoring and observability assessment.