Network Managers and Engineers Define SDN "Like a Road Trip Without a Map"
MILPITAS, CA--(Marketwired - May 12, 2014) - Network Instruments, a business unit of JDSU (
TWEET THIS: @NetInst State of the Network Results: Nearly 40% consider #SDN to be Undefinable.
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What's trending? The results suggest network teams are investigating and adopting emerging technologies like SDN and 40 Gigabit (Gb) Ethernet networks on a limited basis, while technologies such as Unified Communications (UC) and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are approaching the threshold of mainstream adoption, tipping in at more than 50 percent implementation by year's end.
Study Highlights:
"As with any emerging technology, IT management is grappling over the definition of SDN, as well as its benefit and importance to the organization," said Brad Reinboldt, manager of Product Marketing for Network Instruments. "As network professionals come to terms with SDN and its relevance, they continue to juggle multiple major initiatives including Big Data, UC, BYOD and 40 Gb deployment. As IT continues to roll out bandwidth-hungry applications to keep pace with the needs of a global, mobile workforce, they lag in the visibility and troubleshooting technologies needed to monitor their burgeoning networks."
Software Defined Networks
With a wide range of definitions for SDN, the top drivers behind SDN adoption were the need to improve the network's ability to dynamically adapt to changing business demands (48 percent) and to deliver new services faster (40 percent). Others indicated lowering operating expenses, decreasing capital expenses, improving the ability to provision network infrastructure, and designing more realistic network infrastructures as reasons behind SDN deployment.
Unified Communications
Significant adoption of the many communication applications making up UC have occurred during the past five years as 71 percent have now deployed voice-over-IP (VoIP), compared to 45 percent in 2009. Likewise, 63 percent have rolled out videoconferencing compared to 27 percent in 2009. Nearly half now use instant messaging compared to only 27 percent in 2009.
While UC applications can now be considered mainstream, adoption of application monitoring lags behind. More than 50 percent of the participants indicated that lack of visibility into user experience was their top UC management challenge. This was followed by difficulties assessing bandwidth usage at 39 percent, and an inability to assess UC deployment impact by 38 percent of respondents.
Application Angst
In terms of organizational bandwidth demand, three-quarters of respondents expect increases of up to 50 percent in 2014. In 2015, this bandwidth surge continues unabated with one-quarter of respondents expecting demand to increase between 51 percent to 100 percent, and 12 percent of respondents forecasting their organization's demand to exceed 100 percent. As applications and networks grow in complexity, the ability to resolve performance problems worsens: 74 percent indicated that their largest application troubleshooting challenge was isolating the source of the problem, a 6 percent rise over last year's results.
State of the Network Global Study Background
The State of the Network Global Study has been conducted annually for seven years. This year, Network Instruments engaged 241 network professionals to understand and quantify new technology adoption trends and daily IT challenges. Respondents were asked, via a third-party web portal, to answer a series of questions on the impact, challenges, and benefits of SDN, UC, Big Data and Application Performance Management. The results were based on responses by network engineers, IT directors, and CIOs from around the globe. Responses were collected from January 10, 2014 to March 7, 2014.
About Network Instruments
Network Instruments, a JDSU Performance Management Solution, is an industry leader in application and network management. It provides products that optimize performance and speed problem resolution, helping ensure delivery of critical applications for businesses worldwide. Network Instruments delivers these benefits through a seamlessly integrated line of precision-engineered software and hardware systems for exact network monitoring and analysis. For more information, visit www.networkinstruments.com or follow on Twitter @netinst.
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