Computacenter warns over network neglect

Corporate VAR giant's research reveals cloud computing and virtualisation are still causing confusion among UK IT decision makers

Risky business: Enterprises are failing to take their network security and performance into consideration when making IT purchases

UK firms are not investing enough in their network, risking downtime and performance issues, Computacenter has claimed.

The corporate VAR giant surveyed more than 150 IT decision makers across UK enterprises, and discovered that 74 per cent of respondents felt the network was central to their IT strategy, but 33 per cent did not consider it before making a technology purchase, thus compromising performance and security.

Despite this, 76 per cent believed taking no action with their network will impact business performance.

In addition, 90 per cent of respondents believed the network is hampering virtualisation efforts, with 88 per cent claiming virtualisation directly causes network performance issues. A further 68 per cent believe they had underestimated the number of network issues arising from virtualisation.

Colin Williams, networking and security practice leader at Computacenter, said: “It is common to see a lack of proactive optimisation directed towards the network, particularly in difficult times when IT decision makers have so many other challenges.

“The inherent problem with the network is that no-one notices it until it goes wrong, so in many cases it has become a victim of its own reliability. That doesn’t however mean it is currently ready to cope with changing business needs.”

Computacenter’s research also revealed that firms have a limited understanding of the cloud requirements of the network, with just 11 per cent seeing virtualisation as a means of preparing for cloud computing.

Williams added: “Our lives are more tied to networks than we realise, whether it is communicating through Facebook, implementing unified communications to increase productivity or networks as the foundation to underpin server virtualisation, they are at the heart of everything we do.

“Network readiness must be addressed now to ensure organisations have the capability to provide new business critical services and applications that will impact businesses’ ability to compete and ultimately succeed.”