Facebook and YouTube usage dominates business networks
Facebook and YouTube usage dominates business networks, according to new analysis from managed security services provider Network Box.
Employees’ use of social networks is an issue that enterprises can’t ignore – at least, it’s hard to ignore when there’s research and statistics coming out nearly every day about the growing use of social networking applications at work.
Where IT pros do their social networking
Most recently, analysis from managed security services provider Network Box found that Facebook and YouTube usage dominates business networks. Accessing and downloading material from these two sites — while at work — accounts for more corporate Web activity and used bandwidth than any other sites, the firm says.
Over a five-month period, Network Box analyzed traffic to 19 billion URLs through its global security operations centers. It ranked the top five Web sites visited from business addresses by volume of traffic. By its measurements, 5.8% of all Web traffic from business networks is to Facebook – which is higher than to any other Web site. Google ranked second at 4.1%, followed by Yahoo’s Yimg image server (3.1%), Yahoo (2.7%) and Doubleclick (1.7%).
Network Box also ranked Web sites by the bandwidth they use. In that tally, YouTube topped the list, consuming 7.8% of corporate bandwidth to download videos. That’s followed by Facebook (4.4%), Windows Update (3.8%), Yahoo’s Yimg image server (2.8%) and Google (2.7%).
It’s critical that companies are aware of how employees are using the Web and set appropriate usage policies, according to Simon Heron, Internet analyst for Network Box. “Businesses have to be aware that their employees use Facebook at work. They should have systems in place to ensure that they are getting the best use they can from company resources,” Heron said in a statement.
The issue of social networks was also a hot topic at this week’s Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas.
Employees and customers are using wikis, blogs, Facebook and Twitter and “it’s affecting you now whether you know it or not,” said Gartner analyst David Cappuccio in a keynote address at the conference. Businesses need to examine Web-based social software platforms because they are transforming interactions with both customers and employees, he said. (Read the full story on the top 10 data center challenges by my colleague Jon Brodkin.)
Of course enterprise IT managers aren’t the only ones worried about users consuming too much bandwidth. Service providers, too, are grappling with how to handle activities that drive up bandwidth use, such as file transfers, peer-to-peer traffic and newsgroups. My colleague Tim Greene reported this week that Comcast is trialing a service which tips off heavy users when they are about to run afoul of the company’s acceptable use policy. Called Comcast Usage Meter, the Web-based service alerts customers when they are at risk of reaching a 250GB-per-month traffic allowance — and therefore susceptible to having their bandwidth pinched by Comcast if the network gets congested.
