The AV Cloud Shift Is On: Key Takeaways from the 2025 Midyear Report

The shift to the cloud is well underway in AV. You can hear it in conversations on the show floor and see it in the choices teams are making - how they manage devices, deliver services, and plan for growth. There’s a growing push to streamline both tools and how they work together. Stakeholders are actively seeking more visibility into what’s happening across systems and fewer surprises when something breaks.

Twice a year, we take a closer look at where the industry stands. Our biannual AV Cloud Data Report combines data from the Xyte Device Cloud with survey responses from integrators, MSPs, manufacturers, and others who work in these environments every day. The goal is to surface the patterns that are worth paying attention to.

The just-released 2025 midyear edition of the AV Cloud Data Report shows a clear direction. Teams are leaning toward open APIs, unified platforms, and smarter ways to scale support. They’re tuning systems to reduce noise, resolve issues faster, and work more efficiently. 

In this companion blog, we’ll explore a few of the specific shifts that stood out in this latest report - and where they might lead next.

AV-Cloud Adoption: From Promise to Practice

More AV teams are making the move to the cloud, but it’s not always smooth. In our latest survey, nearly 60% said they’re already using cloud-based monitoring. That’s real momentum. Yet once you look closer, you see that almost half are still managing four or more platforms just to keep things running. Only a small group, about 10%, have everything in one place.

That kind of setup adds drag. It takes more time to find the right data. It creates gaps that slow down support. Over 86% of respondents said a single pane of glass for monitoring and remote management would be extremely or very useful. When it comes to hardware decisions, two-thirds said cloud connectivity is now a key factor. That signals a clear shift. People aren’t just buying devices anymore. They’re looking to buy into an ecosystem.

Pain Points: Real-World Challenges

Across the industry, one thing keeps coming up - people want their systems to work together without extra effort. In the survey, 86% of respondents said open APIs are important. Over half said they’re not just useful - they’re absolutely necessary.

When people described what’s getting in the way, one thing rose to the top: managing multi-vendor environments. That came up more than any other challenge, with 44.3% of respondents naming it as their biggest headache. A third pointed to lack of interoperability. Only about a quarter said legacy infrastructure was the problem. And when asked what’s really holding the industry back, nearly two-thirds pointed to the lack of shared standards.

The benefits of fixing that are pretty straightforward. According to the report, faster troubleshooting and easier integration were tied as the most valuable outcomes of a more open AV ecosystem. Scalability followed close behind. And when asked where open APIs could help most, people pointed to system integration first, then remote support, automation, and monitoring.

The message came through in every direction. Teams want systems that cooperate out of the box, so they can stay focused on real work.

What Matters Most to AV Systems Integrators

For AV systems integrators, growth isn’t just about adding more clients. It’s about supporting more without piling on extra work or adding headcount. Teams want better visibility, smarter automation, and fewer distractions that pull them off task.

In our survey, integrators shared what they care about most when it comes to reporting. Incidents resolved without customer impact came out on top, along with room utilization. Both ranked higher than traditional metrics like responsiveness or SLA adherence. Clearly, the focus has moved from reaction to prevention.

And integrators aren’t just talking about prevention - they’re achieving it. Over a 90-day period, data from 19 integrators and MSPs using Xyte showed that as the number of managed devices more than tripled, the average incident burden per device steadily declined. That’s a clear sign that teams are scaling their operations without increasing support load. One integrator had been juggling up to five platforms before switching to Xyte. With everything now tracked in one place, their team spends far less time chasing false alarms and more time focused on meaningful outcomes.

Conclusion

Our findings in the midyear AV Cloud Data Report reflect what we’ve been hearing across the industry. As more teams are moving to the cloud, they’re looking for ways to scale, support, and demonstrate the value of their work. To that end, teams are consolidating platforms, prioritizing open APIs, and tuning systems to reduce noise while increasing value. These are operational priorities that teams are acting on today, with measurable results across both integrator networks and managed platforms.

There’s a lot more in the full report - more data, more insights, more detail on what’s changing and why. If you want to take a closer look, you can download the full AV Cloud Data Report – Midyear 2025. It’s free, and it’s built for the people doing the work - whether you’re managing systems, supporting customers, or building what’s next.