Daisy’s State of Networking Report 2024 highlights that growing network complexity is making it more costly for organisations to secure and manage their networks.
Almost two-thirds (64%) say their current network is made up from a patchwork of different vendor technologies, and 87% say this has created network management issues. Due to this, 88% of organisations state that simplifying their network infrastructure is now a priority.
At the same time, 69% of organisations have seen an uptick in network security threats over the last 18 months and 71% say that cyber security threats are the biggest networking challenge they currently face.
Joel Cunningham, Head of Connect at Daisy Corporate Services, said: “At a time when the network perimeter is becoming increasingly virtual and a growing number of business processes and applications are online, it has never been so important to be able to maintain and manage a secure boundary between your network and the outside world.”
Daisy found that it is typically legacy networks holding organisations back and 81% of respondent stated an increased pressure was being an increased put on their networks due to the number of cloud applications being used in the workplace.
Over a third of organisations (37%) said ensuring cloud application performance was one of the main networking challenges they face. Yet upgrades are a challenge for many with 60% of saying the cost of upgrading devices is delaying their move to WiFi 6. Only 21% of those surveyed currently have WiFi 6 deployed across most of their organisation.
Despite being aware that they need to simplify and update their network infrastructure, 30% of IT budgets is currently still spent on maintaining legacy network hardware.
Legacy technology is also preventing organisations from meeting their sustainability goals; with legacy network hardware accounting for a third (34%) of organisations’ overall IT power consumption.
Cunningham added: “Traditional approaches to managing wide area networks often fall short in addressing these complex issues. However, Software-Defined Wide Area Networking has emerged and evolved into a transformative solution.
“This solves the problem of optimising network performance but enhances security measures, giving organisations an edge in the ever-evolving threat landscape.”