09 November 2016
Enterprises globally are refreshing their network equipment earlier in its lifecycle in a move to embrace workplace mobility, Internet of Things, and software-defined networking strategies, according to Dimension Data.
In its 2016 Network Barometer report released today, the enterprise technology specialist says the equipment refresh is more strategic, with architectural vision in mind.
However, despite the higher refresh rate, Dimension Data warns that networks are getting less secure, largely due to neglected patching.
Dimension Data compiled the report using data gathered from 300,000 service incidents logged for client networks it supports. The company says it also carried out 320 technology lifecycle management assessments. These covered 97,000 network devices in organisations of all sizes and all industry sectors across 28 countries.
“Since 2010, networks had been ageing,” says Andre van Schalkwyk, Dimension Data’s senior practice manager for network consulting. “This year’s report reverses that trend, and for the first time in five years we’re seeing networks age more slowly.”
He goes on to point out that while ageing networks are not necessarily a bad thing, companies just need to understand that they require a different support construct, with gradually increasing support costs, although this also means organisations can delay refresh costs.
Dimension Data’s Andre van Schalkwyk says for the first time in five years we’re seeing networks age more slowly.
However, van Schalkwyk adds that ageing networks are unlikely to support initiatives such as SDN and automation, or handle traffic volumes necessary for collaboration or cloud.
The report found that in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Australia, enterprises’ network age reduced in line with the global average, while in the Americas, the number of ageing and obsolete devices decreased much faster, from 60 per cent in 2015 to 29 per cent in 2016.
Dimension Data reckons this can be attributed to the release of “pent-up” spend following four years of financial constraint. It says clients in the Americas appear to be refreshing networks with the new generation of programmable infrastructure, while in Asia-Pacific and Australia, equipment refresh occurred as part of data centre network redesigns.
In contrast to the global trend, the study found that in the Middle East and Africa, the network age increased. Dimension Data says this could possibly be the result of economic uncertainty, particularly in South Africa.
Of the 97,000 network devices Dimension Data covered, the number that have at least one known security vulnerability increased from 60 per cent in 2015 to 76 per cent in 2016 – the highest figure in five years.
In Europe, the report says the rise in network vulnerabilities has been very steep since 2013, rising from 26 per cent in 2014 to 51 per cent in 2015 and 82 per cent in 2016.
Dimension Data says 37 per cent of incidents are caused by configuration or human error, which can be avoided with proper monitoring, configuration management and automation.
The Network Barometer also states that SDN is coming soon, but not just yet. While there is market interest in the technology, it’s early in the adoption cycle and not many organisational networks are currently capable of supporting a software-defined approach.
In its 2015 report, Dimension Data found that less than 0.4 per cent of devices could support SD-WAN and only 1.3 per cent of data centre switches were SDN-ready.
