Users focus on optimizing, securing WANs

In May, the worldwide Webtorials community was surveyed concerning their satisfaction with existing WAN equipment and their plans for implementing new gear. This community consists primarily of networking professionals with decision-making, recommending and influencing responsibilities. The survey respondents also represented a multinational cross-section of company sizes and network sizes.

The survey, sponsored in part by Packeteer, confirmed trends that we thought we had been seeing. For instance, we did not see any huge shifts to new technologies. Rather, users are much more focused on optimizing their current networks. And, for the most part, they’re pleased with their current networks.

So far as the current networks are concerned, though, there was an interesting trend that we saw both in this survey and in our earlier Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS)-oriented study. Most of the users indicated a fairly high level of satisfaction with current traditional frame relay and ATM services. At the same time, most users also indicated they are moving away from these services toward Internet-based VPN and MPLS-based VPNs. This is a trend that we’ll be examining much more closely later in the fall with a services-oriented study.

And while we’re in the midst of this high-level review of the results, it’s of note that performance management and security remain top concerns for most networks, and equipment purchases seem to be reflecting this.

We’ll be examining more of these results in the next newsletter. In the meantime, the written report and a Webcast concerning the results are available at the Webtorials site (see the links below).