AI-Powered Adversaries Are Overwhelming SOCs — and Network Visibility Is the New Front Line

Security operations centers are cracking under pressure. According to new research from the Enterprise Strategy Group (now part of Omdia) commissioned by Vectra AI, defenders are contending with an unprecedented wave of threats — in both scale and sophistication — as attackers increasingly harness AI to automate reconnaissance, mimic legitimate traffic, and blend into the digital noise.

The report, The Role of Network Visibility in Protecting Modern Environments, paints a clear picture: traditional defenses are no longer enough. Network Detection and Response (NDR), long viewed as a niche tool, is now being recast as the centerpiece of enterprise resilience.

When the Network Becomes the Source of Truth

“Network visibility is no longer just a defensive advantage — it’s a force multiplier for resilience,” says Mark Wojtasiak, VP of Research and Strategy at Vectra AI. “When security teams can see across their hybrid environments with clarity and context, they don’t just detect attacks faster — they outpace them.”

That statement underscores a shift happening across the industry. As enterprises scatter workloads across clouds, devices, and edge systems, defenders are losing their line of sight. The report found 63% of organizations say hybrid complexity is now one of their biggest obstacles. Meanwhile, 56% still rely on manual response workflows, and nearly 60% admit detection delays give attackers too much time to move laterally or steal data.

This isn’t just a tooling problem — it’s a human one. 57% of analysts report they lack the skills to respond effectively, and another 57% cite debilitating alert fatigue. The result: exhausted teams, missed signals, and growing exposure windows.

The New Alliance: SecOps Meets NetOps

To close those gaps, organizations are consolidating around shared data and tools. A striking 93% of respondents said their security and network operations teams now use the same visibility platforms — a rare show of alignment in historically siloed disciplines.

The motivations are practical: better context (49%), easier deployment and management (47%), improved efficacy (46%), and cost efficiency (44%). The effect is cultural as much as technical — a unified operational model where incident response, investigation, and remediation move in concert.

“SOCs are facing pressure from all sides — too many alerts, too few skilled analysts, and too much complexity,” said John Grady, Principal Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “Our data shows that the organizations winning the fight are the ones reframing the problem around visibility. By making the network their core source of truth, they’re transforming how they detect, investigate, and respond to threats, and seeing better outcomes as a result.”

NDR Steps Into the Hybrid Era

The report’s most surprising finding challenges a persistent myth: that NDR is a legacy, on-premises solution. In reality, 41% of organizations now rely on NDR or visibility tools to monitor hybrid multi-cloud environments, proving that network telemetry remains vital in a cloud-first world.

In fact, 65% of respondents said they use network visibility as their first line of defense, with over half depending exclusively on network-based tools. As AI-driven threats evolve, that visibility — especially when coupled with behavioral analytics — is emerging as the decisive edge in early detection.

The Bottom Line

The SOC fatigue crisis is real. Analysts are outnumbered, automation is lagging, and adversaries are scaling their attacks faster than ever. Yet, amid the chaos, a pattern of resilience is emerging: organizations that treat the network as their source of truth — not just another data feed — are adapting fastest.

As Wojtasiak puts it, when you can see clearly, you can act decisively. And in the age of AI-fueled cyber warfare, clarity may just be the ultimate defense.