The Network Barometer Report 2015 gauges the readiness of today’s networks to support business. The Report is based on network discovery data gathered from Dimension Data’s Technology Lifecycle Management Assessments conducted for organisations around the world. We combined this with information from our Global Service Centres, which relate to support service requests, or ‘incidents’, logged against organisations’ devices managed by us. The result is a multidimensional view of today’s networks.

1. Our conclusion …
We recommend …
Ageing devices = more vulnerable than current or
obsolete devices.
Data centre switches and edge/branch office routers
= most published security advisories.
Data centre switches and wireless access points
= highest penetration rate = most at risk.
Network
Barometer
Report 2015
Technology data gathered from
technology assessments discovered devices
Boston
Frankfurt
Bangalore
Johannesburg
Support services data gathered from
Global
Service Centres:
service incidents managed devices
A sample of more than A sample size of
175,000 > 1.5 million
countries
105
technology lifecycle
management
support
services
security architecture
We investigated 4 dimensions
About the Report
11 industries
5 regions
Networks have aged for 5 consecutive years.
of devices are now
ageing or obsolete
fewer are obsolete
than last year
BUT
more are ageing
53% Organisations have a higher tolerance of obsolete
devices than Dimension Data has when managing
networks on clients’ behalf.
(-2 )
percentage
points )(+4 percentage
points
Technology lifecycle management
Support service
Security
architecture
How old are today’s networks?
What causes today’s networks to fail?
How vulnerable are today’s networks?
Are today’s networks prepared for enterprise
mobility and the Internet of Things?
Of all incidents ...
Devices managed by Dimension Data took …
less time
to repair.75% less time to troubleshoot
and, consequently, 32%
55%
= factors outside
of a support
contract’s terms
= device failures
45%
of incidents are caused by
human error, therefore
avoidable through proper
configuration and change
management tools
and processes.
Almost
1/3
60%
BUT
devices with at least one
security vulnerability
Slight improvement from last year
vulnerability has remained fairly constant over last 4 years.
Organisations are expanding two wireless - supporting
capabilities in their access switches:
74% of all wireless access points are
older models that can’t support
advanced enterprise mobility
requirements.
Only 21% of devices support IPv6.
48% of devices can be switched to IPv6
through a simple software upgrade.
10GB uplink
speed
up by
2
25%
percentage
points
up by
Power-over-
Ethernet
14
65%
percentage
points
down by
8
Gigabit Ethernet
BUT
37%
percentage
points
Remote monitoring and automated
management are the most effective
ways to improve network service levels
by drastically reducing support time.
There’s a growing need for more
effective day-to-day network
management across all corporate
infrastructures.
Sweating your assets is OK
Achieve visibility of
your network estate
Standardise all
technologies and
configurations
Automate day-to-day
management tasks
Monitor networking
devices closely
BUT