Half of all networks obsolete in five years?

04 Jul 2012

New study by Dimension Data offers alarming findings for companies grappling with stretched IT budgets

At least, that’s the grim prediction offered up by IT services company Dimension Data, in its 2012 Network Barometer report. Based on technology lifecycle management assessments conducted by the company at almost 300 different clients worldwide, the company found that some 45 percent of networks will be obsolete within five years, a significant step up from the 38 percent found in its 2010 report.

The report suggests that, while many organisations are investing in order to connect more mobile devices to their networks, they may be overlooking the underlying network infrastructure responsible for the distribution and delivery of their communication services.

“There’s often a disproportionate focus on endpoints such as laptops, tablets, smartphones or virtual machines. However, organisations cannot ignore the basic routing and switching equipment at the core of the network,” comments Raoul Tecala, Dimension Data’s business development director for network integration.

“Our data reveals that organisations are upgrading the wireless access points at the edge of their network aggressively. In fact a third of all the access points discovered [in technology lifecycle management assessments] during 2011 were 802.11n capable – that’s almost triple the 12 percent 802.11n penetration in 2010,” he says. Next year, he expects the proportion to break the 50 percent barrier.

At the same time, however, organisations that are rushing to enable technologies such as mobility and desktop virtualisation at the edge of the network, may be neglecting its core. “Without adequate planning, organisations can expect traffic jams and performance bottlenecks – it’s like building a number of new on-ramps onto a motorway and not adding new lanes to carry the additional traffic,” Tecala cautions.

Dimension Data’s study categorises network equipment according to age, and tracks their progress through what the company calls “the obsolescence phase”. In total, the percentage of devices that entered this phase increased to 45 percent in 2011, from 38 percent in the year-earlier study. 

The earliest lifecycle milestone in this obsolescence phase is termed end-of-sale (EoS), where the device is no longer sold, but still supported, by its vendor. Of those devices in the obsolescence phase, 70 percent fell into the EoS category, a huge increase on the 4.2 percent seen in the 2011 Network Barometer.

At the other end of Dimension Data’s scale is LDoS – last day of support, the final stage of obsolescence and the highest level of risk. Here, the percentage of devices remained unchanged at 9 percent.

“If organisations don’t start to plan for upgrades at the core of their networks, technology megatrends such as mobility – or bring your own device (BYOD) – video and virtualisation could bring them to their knees,” the company warns. “This will impact competitiveness and organisational efficiency and leave end-users – the consumers who increasingly drive technology adoption – frustrated and unproductive.”