Network Barometer Report 2015

Transcription

1 Network Barometer Report 2015 Regional analysis The Network Barometer Report 2015 gauges the readiness of today s networks to support business. The Report is based on network discovery data gathered from Dimension Data s Technology Lifecycle Management Assessments conducted for organisations around the world. We combined this with information from our Global Service Centres, which relate to support service requests, or incidents, logged against organisations devices managed by us. The result is a multidimensional view of today s networks. This year, our overall conclusion is: There s a growing need for more effective day-to-day network management across all corporate infrastructures. Remote monitoring and automated management are the most effective ways to improve network service levels by drastically reducing support time. We reached this conclusion by investigating and comparing four dimensions of network management and strategy across all regions: technology lifecycle management, support services, security, and architecture. For more detailed global findings, click here. Sample data for this region The Network Barometer Report 2015 s technology data was gathered from 354 Technology Lifecycle Management Assessments we ve conducted for organisations across all regions 18% of which were done in. Figure 1: Percentage of Technology Lifecycle Management Assessments per region Figure 2: Percentage of service incidents by region Of the over 170,000 service incidents analysed for our services sample set, the smallest proportion came from, at less than 1%. This is due to the smaller client base that Dimension Data serves in this particular region.

2 Dimension 1: Technology lifecycle management How old are networks in? Figure 3: Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices by region Global Compared with the global average of ageing and obsolete devices, which rose by a modest two percentage points, was one of three regions in which organisations refreshed their networks more than last year the others being and. In the remaining two regions, there were more ageing and obsolete devices than last year. The percentage of ageing and obsolete devices in reduced by three percentage points from 51% last year to 48% this year and shows a continued downward trend over the last three years.

3 Dimension 2: Support services What causes network devices to fail in? Figure 5: Root causes of incidents in, Asset capacity Cable Fault Configuration error Environment Hardware failure Other human error Scheduled outage Software bug Telco failure In terms of incidents by resolution category, the results for mirror the sharp global increase in the proportion of hardware failures we ve seen this year. Similarly, the percentage of configuration errors increased compared with last year, while software bugs were also more prevalent in this region. The larger proportion of hardware incidents is due to a general increase in devices managed by Dimension Data, in combination with an overall reduction in obsolete devices. The earlier the device is in its lifecycle, the more prone it would be to hardware failures and software problems that haven t been identified and solved yet during its shorter lifespan. Counting together other human errors (28%) and configuration errors (12%), mistakes made by people account for (40%) of all failures in this region and are potentially avoidable. Of all root causes, only software bugs (8%) and hardware errors (34%) would fall within the terms of a basic support contract, adding up to a total of 42%. This implies that the largest percentage of incidents a total of 58% in this region would need to be handled and remedied by organisations themselves. That is, if they don t have advanced, network monitoring, support, and management services in place.

4 Dimension 3: Security How vulnerable are networks in? Figure 6: Percentage of devices with at least one vulnerability, by region Global Along with,, and, saw an improvement in the security status of its networks. The percentage of devices with at least one vulnerability reduced from 80% last year to 67% this year. That is, compared with the global average improvement of 74% to 60% this year.

5 Dimension 4: Architecture How well are networks prepared for enterprise mobility and the Internet of Things across all regions? Enterprise mobility requires pervasive wireless connectivity which, in turn, requires at least three basic features in access ports: power-over-ethernet, gigabit Ethernet on the client side, and 10-gigabit uplinks. Figure 7: Network access point devices wireless capabilities of all access switches support power- 65% over-ethernet 14-percentage point increase from % of the port support PoE (compared to 51% in 2013). 25% of all access switches support 10GB uplinks 2-percentage point increase on the previous year. of all access switches support gigabit 37% Ethernet Decreased to 37% of all ports compared to 45% the previous year. This is a 8-percentage point decline. 14.5% growth in wireless bookings This year, we found that: 65% of ports across all regions support power-over-ethernet up by 14 percentage points since last year 25% of switches across all regions support 10-gigabit uplinks up by 2 percentage points 37% of ports across all regions support gigabit Ethernet down by 8 percentage points We maintain that this slight improvement is a reaction to the increased number of mobile devices used in the workplace, rather than the result of a planned and proactive strategy to prepare for enterprise mobility. However, as seen in Figure 8, 74% of devices are still older models that don t support mobility. Figure 8: Percentage of devices per device model across all regions g (LDoS) g n ac 63

6 Only devices with the later model numbers n and ac can fully support wireless connectivity. However, there were no ac devices discovered this year, and only 26% were of the n type. This implies that the vast majority of network devices (74%) are still not able to support advanced wireless and mobility requirements. This data also explains why there s still so much access switching infrastructure that doesn t accommodate powerover-ethernet, gigabit Ethernet, and 10-gigabit uplinks: most access points are still of the g variety, which only supports a theoretical maximum throughput of 54Mbps. In addition to the impact of enterprise mobility on corporate networks, The Internet of Things will see an increasing number and variety of business-enabling and enhancing technologies interconnecting via networks. Non-human objects will be able to gather data from their environment, interact with one another, and make intelligent decisions, all without human intervention. To leverage the benefits this will offer, organisations will need to adopt IPv6 more broadly across their infrastructures. Public IPv4 addresses are becoming a rare commodity; in fact, in some parts of the world they re already depleted. Organisations with mostly IPv4-based networks, which haven t architected the underlying environment with IPv6 in mind, have limited visibility of, and control over, IPv6-enabled technologies. This exposes them to unnecessary risk, as they won t be able to monitor and manage those devices, nor control the traffic flow, as well as in an IPv4-based environment. Figure 9: Percentage of devices that support IPv6 across all regions Further analysis Not supported Requires upgrade Supported 48 We found that only 21% of network devices across all regions are currently IPv6-enabled, while 48% need a simple software upgrade to become IPv6-ready. This lack of basic network management exposes organisations to unnecessary risk, particularly given the dawn of the Internet of Things and the demands this will place on corporate networks to adopt the new standard. Network Barometer Report 2015, Dimension Data 2015