|
||
 |
||
 |
|
||||||
|
SURVEY BY THE STRATEGY GROUP SHOWS CHANGING REQUIREMENTS IN BRANCH OFFICE COMPUTING Results Reveal that Respondents Want to Improve Security, Manageability, Performance, and Capacity of Branch Office Environm Sunnyvale, Calif., April 4, 2006 — NetDevices, Inc., a developer of services gateway products for enterprise branch networks, today announced the findings of a sponsored survey conducted by The Strategy Group, Inc., an independent research company located in Englewood, Florida. The survey draws on information collected from 805 decision makers selected from the Ziff Davis Media database; all respondents worked in establishments with multiple branch office locations. The survey covers the distribution of enterprise applications to branch and remote offices, the major equipment issues these offices face, and the type of equipment that best addresses their needs. (Editors Note: A copy of the survey results is downloadable from NetDevices at http://www.netd.com/resources/techpapers ) “The survey found that more centralized applications continue to be distributed to the branch office today, which raises issues of security, performance, management overhead, and cost,� said Rich Houghton, president of The Strategy Group. “At the same time, the average branch office IT infrastructure has grown to have more than four servers. Maintaining and managing them, and ensuring their security, can be problematic.� Remote Access is on the Rise—More than 50 percent of survey respondents indicated that remote access in branch offices is on the rise as enterprises centralize databases and applications. Centralization may require more equipment to provide the necessary bandwidth, WAN security, and manageability, but the onus is on IT to make localized equipment more efficient and cost effective. The top concerns companies have with their branch offices are downtime (49 percent), security (39 percent), and costs (32 percent). Branch-Office Devices Are Being Consolidated—The great majority of branches have routers, antivirus solutions, wired LANs, and firewalls, while a smaller percentage have a wide variety of other components and functions such as application proxies. Yet the average number of servers in the branch will remain constant, with an average of 4.3 servers per branch today and 4.2 by the end of 2006, said survey respondents. Due to the phenomenal power of today’s server and networking platforms, coupled with virtualization and modularization, branches need not only to consolidate devices and functions into multi-service devices with a modular, open architecture but also to improve manageability and uptime. Centralized vs. Decentralized Management—Centralized management confers significant productivity and other benefits, but there are so many functions and devices to manage at the branch—and some consolidated systems can be so complex—that many respondents have multiple unified management systems. About 12 percent of the respondents still have to dispatch an employee to handle hardware and software issues at remote locations. As applications become more centralized, the ability to manage unified branch platforms from a central location to ensure they are always up will be essential. The Router and Security—The role of the router is an ongoing issue in distributed organizations. While nothing should encumber the router’s mission of providing throughput, about half of respondents also use them for security, with 50 percent admitting they use the router just because it is there. Plus, 37 percent of respondents are only marginally or moderately satisfied with branch office security. Given the increasing number and kinds of security threats, enterprises need to investigate alternate, unified platforms that support multiple security functions. “The survey clearly reveals that at a time when centralization is on the rise yet the branch is more important than ever, IT managers must be able to ensure the availability and security of mission-critical applications and services at the branch, where the majority of employees work,� said Mark Weiner, senior director of marketing, NetDevices, Inc. “In addition, IT managers need more efficient ways to monitor, manage, and rapidly deploy new services to branches from the central site. NetDevices was prescient in taking the early lead in purpose-building a unified solution for the branch office that addresses all of these issues.� About NetDevices, Inc. Julie Huang Mark Weiner |
|
|
|||
|
||
|