Network management increasingly challenging

Network Instruments' annual 'State of Networking' survey carried out in January 2008, revealed 75 percent of network professionals reported difficulties in identifying the primary cause of poor application performance. Last year, that figure was just 25 percent.

"These problems will continue to grow as companies implement new technologies and applications on their networks, without the necessary visibility into them, " said Ian Cummins, EMEA vice president, Network Instruments. "Although the primary cause is an application/network/server issue, the upshot is, it becomes a 'staying-in-business' issue."

Other highlights of the survey, showed 31 percent citing lack of troubleshooting information as their major network concern; while 25 percent said ensuring application delivery was their biggest network problem.

The survey also showed a five percent increase in VoIP implementations, with 66 percent of firms having implemented or looking to implement VoIP in the next 12 months. The number of network professionals expressing confidence in their VoIP rollouts also increased from 12 percent last year to 25 percent.

Multiprotocol label switched systems (MPLS), a technique for increasing network speeds and giving better network management, together with 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) connectivity are still on firms' radar, but rollouts are in the initial stages. The survey shows 55 percent have no intention to migrate to MPLS, while 71 percent indicated they had no plans for deploying 10GbE.

The survey sample size was 600, with CIOs and IT managers from around the world being questioned about the problems they face troubleshooting application performance.

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