The 2025 Network Modernization Benchmark: Why Resilience, Speed, and Services Now Rule the Enterprise Backbone

The C1 Edge research—conducted in partnership with Hanover Research—surveyed 175 U.S. IT and business leaders who buy and run enterprise networks across multiple industries. What they told us paints a clear, and sometimes painful, picture of life at the digital edge: 

• 91% say network reliability is now a strategic priority in the C-suite or boardroom.

• 90% confirm downtime hurts business; almost half (47%) call the impact “major.”
• 81% plan to invest in Wi-Fi 6/7, 79% in SD-WAN, and 76% in 5G during the next 12 months.
• 72% already augment internal staff with managed or co-managed services.
• Performance (68%), security (60%), and reliability (57%) top all design decisions. Network Research (1)

Below, we unpack the findings, connect the dots to broader market forces, present network modernization strategies, and close with a practical roadmap any CIO or network architect can start following today.

1. Network Reliability: From Back-Office Plumbing to Boardroom Agenda

"Keep the lights on” always mattered, but it rarely commanded airtime at quarterly earnings calls. That’s changing fast:  

• 46% of respondents say network reliability is now a major strategic priority for their board/C-suite, and another 45% call it a moderate priority. Only 9% think it’s minor.  

• Why the urgency? Nearly nine out of ten believe an outage would cause moderate-to-major damage. Customer trust, revenue, compliance fines—everything is on the line.  

Key takeaway: Make sure uptime metrics, risk scores, and incident response KPIs are part of your executive dashboard. Reliability is the new currency of digital trust. 

2. Investment Priorities: Edge Acceleration Takes the Lead

Enterprise buyers are voting with their budgets: 

The pattern is unmistakable: wireless and software-defined overlays are quickly replacing static, hardware-heavy architectures. Wi-Fi 6/7 delivers multi-gigabit speeds for hybrid offices and high-density venues, while SD-WAN and 5G offer transport-agnostic links and deterministic QoS at the branch or plant floor.  

Why it matters: These upgrades support real-time analytics, AR/VR training, autonomous vehicles, and AI inference—all workloads that choke first-generation Wi-Fi and MPLS.

3. What’s Driving the Spend? Cost Efficiency & Raw Speed

Asked why they’re pouring dollars into the network, respondents prioritize three pragmatic goals: 

1. Reducing operational costs (47%)

2. Improving performance & speed (43%)

3. Boosting reliability & uptime (38%)

Cloud migration (5%) and remote-work support (9%) barely register, a sign many organizations already crossed those bridges during the pandemic. Now the focus is on operational ROI—squeezing more value out of every gigabit and router upgrade.

4. Design Drivers: Performance First, But Security Close Behind

When forced to make architecture trade-offs, IT leaders rank attributes this way:

Latency headaches from AI inference, video collaboration, and API calls push speed to #1. Yet the gap between speed and security is only eight points. The message is clear: fast is good, but fast and secure is the mandate. 

5. How Teams Keep the Network Healthy

Rather than chasing exotic failover schemes, most organizations double down on disciplined basics:  

• Optimizing configuration – 56%  

• Routine maintenance & updates – 53%  

• Real-time monitoring & analytics – 52%  

• Strengthening security controls – 50%  

• Regular performance audits – 48%

Less attention goes to classic QoS policies (11%) or bandwidth-shaping (19%). In other words, visibility, automation, and hygiene trump manual tuning. 

6. Managed Services: From Optional to Essential

The skills gap is widening. Cloud migration, SASE frameworks, and zero-trust segmentation all require staffing many teams simply don’t have. That reality drives two big moves:  

• 72% supplement internal staff with third-party help.  

• 51% call the availability of managed services the most critical vendor-selection factor.  

Industry experience ranks a close second (50%). Organizations don’t just want warm bodies—they want partners who already speak their compliance language, understand their legacy quirkiness, and deliver on SLAs without a learning curve.

7. The Headwinds: Security Fears, Legacy Complexity, and Rapid Change

Even with executive sponsorship, modernization is tough: 

Budgets matter, but cultural inertia, risk aversion, and integration complexity hurt more. The big lesson? A shiny new SD-WAN won’t help if your ERP still speaks Token Ring.   

8. Disaster Recovery & Resilience: Focus on What Works Every Day

When asked how they embed resilience:  

• 45% focus on performance & reliability overall. 

• 38% deploy robust backup & recovery.  

• 35% lean on continuous monitoring. 

• Only 8-14% invest heavily in redundant paths or staff drills.  

Why the tilt toward ongoing visibility? Automated backups and real-time alerts scale better than annual tabletop exercises—and satisfy auditors more reliably.  

On benefits, protecting critical data (47%) and reducing downtime (42%) eclipse cost savings or regulatory checkboxes. 

9. Vendor Selection: The One-Two Punch of Services & Sector Savvy

What clinches a contract?

Price still matters, but the defining edge is a partner who can design, run, and adapt the network—without forcing a multi-year straightjacket.   

10. Pulling It All Together: A Network Modernization Roadmap for 2025 and Beyond 

Below is a distilled action plan, adapted from the study’s conclusion, any IT or business leader can use to turn insights into outcomes.  

1. Prioritize high-impact upgrades.  

Start with Wi-Fi 6/7, SD-WAN, and private 5G to unlock bandwidth and edge agility.

2. Embed resilience, not just redundancy.  

Combine continuous monitoring with automated backups and clear incident-response playbooks.  

3. Secure as you modernize.  

Adopt zero-trust segmentation and consolidated threat detection from day one.  

4. Leverage managed expertise.  

Network-as-a-Service and co-managed models offset skills gaps and speed deployment.

5. Tackle legacy complexity early.  

Budget meaningful dollars for migration tools, data hygiene, and change management.

6. Select vendors for services + fit.  

Look for providers who pair managed services with deep vertical experience and flexible terms.  

7. Keep the board engaged.  

Use uptime, performance, and risk KPIs to show progress and secure ongoing funding.

Source: Network Resilience research