How the Age of AI Is Changing the Network Observability Landscape

In recent years, observability has experienced rapid evolution thanks to the rise of AI. In the early days of network observability, the name of the game was to understand what was happening on the network: what is talking to what, how applications are performing, what they are doing at different times of the day or week, and so forth. With the rise of cloud migrations, environments grew from a data center and one cloud vendor to having several cloud instances, data centers, colocations, and several other network areas, requiring additional visibility.

With the introduction of AI, bursty traffic became a problem when scaling network observability solutions. The unpredictable, and spontaneous, traffic spikes made it more difficult to understand the true activity on the network when using legacy network observability solutions.

As this has continued to evolve, the premise of network observability has not changed, but the market has shifted greatly. IT teams are asking smarter, better questions to go beyond what is happening on the network. These questions can include:

• Am I experiencing seasonality in my network traffic?
• What trends has network traffic seen in recent months or years?
• How can I predict any anomalies coming up on the horizon?

Understanding What Is Happening on the Network Is No Longer Enough

Network needs and technology have outgrown the traditional network observability goals and capabilities. Multivendor stacks, strategic use of data and AI for analysis and forecasting, and multicloud infrastructure have introduced complexities that require scalable solutions. This has led to more noise, while also leading to better signals, due to the vast amounts of data provided. The key to unlocking strong network observability is cutting through that noise to understand true network activity.

The GigaOm Radar Values Vendors That Can Help Customers Make Sense of the Data Beyond the Noise

The GigaOm Radar report shows that the network observability market leaders and outperformers truly help customers take the signal, pull it out from the noise, and surface the most important insight, helping teams resolve issues faster while improving the productivity of engineers and other key players in network operations.

Enabling AI in network observability helps IT organizations (or enterprises) do more with less. This is what helps set the top-performing vendors in the report apart from the rest of the pack. AI has proven to be a powerful contributor in proactively managing networks, improving interdepartmental collaboration, and increasing efficiencies. One efficiency gain can be in removing the need for the war room, a slow, inefficient process of pulling teams together to troubleshoot, align, and act. With AI-enabled network observability solutions, the war room can be avoided, and teams can collaborate directly with the data, communicate progress and findings to stakeholders, and expedite processes.

More Information Is Not Necessarily Better Information

Data overload is real. Having the right data, not the most data, is key to unlocking effective, efficient network operations. AI-powered solutions help with this, cutting through the noise of unnecessary data and surfacing the right insights to help teams act quickly and effectively.

This is supported by GigaOm Principal Analyst Whit Walters, who discusses how high-performing vendors such as NETSCOUT help teams communicate more effectively with leadership. With too much data, leadership can miss the key insights due to information overload. NETSCOUT helps reveal the key insights that aid teams in doing their jobs better, providing clearer and more actionable presentation of data to leadership, keeping their attention, getting buy-in, and driving better, more evidence-based decisions.

NETSCOUT Named a Leader and Outperformer in the 2026 “GigaOm Radar for Network Observability” Report

In the 2026 “GigaOm Radar for Network Observability” report, NETSCOUT is named a leader and outperformer. Boasting maturity and platform play functionality, NETSCOUT’s solutions help drive results for enterprises with the most complex networks. NETSCOUT’s end-to-end visibility helps reinforce the platform play positioning on the radar. Additionally, the AI integration in the solution set helps showcase the innovative approach NETSCOUT has as an established, mature provider.

Watch the Webinar to Learn More

NETSCOUT’s own Area Vice President for Enterprise Eileen Haggerty joins Walters in a webinar discussing the evolution of the network observability industry. The webinar, titled “Network Observability in the Age of AI: How the Game is Changing,” provides a deep dive into the key takeaways above with additional insights you can only get on the recording. Learn the details of the evolution of the industry, how GigaOm Radar reports are created, and more!