Organisations with unified data sources achieve faster MTTD, shorter MTTR, says VIAVI’s study

According to the 2025/2026 State of the Network study by VIAVI, reliance on packet capture to improve mean times to detection (MTTD) and resolution (MTTR) is likely to increase in 79 per cent of enterprise organisations this year.

The study revealed how IT network and security teams are evolving to meet the demands of hybrid infrastructure, rising cloud complexity, and increasing pressure to detect and resolve issues faster. Based on insights from 750 global professionals, it highlights a clear shift toward deeper network observability, renewed reliance on packet capture, growing cross-functional collaboration in cloud monitoring, and the accelerating convergence of network operations (NetOps) and security operations (SecOps).

The study showed that organisations with strong packet capture experienced notable improvements to MTTD, with double the number of respondents reporting a significantly shorter MTTD rate over the past year compared to those lacking strong packet capture capability. In addition, respondents with good packet capture abilities were four times more likely to resolve issues in under an hour, and almost 35 per cent more likely to resolve them in under three hours.

Summary of key findings:

• 79 per cent of organisations report growing reliance on packet data, with measurable improvements in MTTD, MTTR, and alert accuracy.
• Organisations 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 per cent increase in collaborative monitoring models.
• 42 per cent of organisations that implemented NetSecOps models reported enhanced security benefits.
• While 92 per cent of organisations reported that they had sufficient budget to meet their needs, 78 per cent believed there was a need for more support to prepare for rising network security threats.

Commenting on the report, Chris Labac, vice president and general manager, network performance and threat solutions, VIAVI, said, “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 are essential. Packet-level visibility has been proven to accelerate the detection, response, and resolution of network issues. Our report demonstrates that organisations 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.”