Riverbed releases results of its Riverbed Future of Network Global Survey
Riverbed Technology recently unveiled the results of the Riverbed Future of Network Global Survey 2017, revealing a near unanimous agreement among IT professionals that legacy infrastructures are hindering cloud and digital strategies. The survey, which examines the impact legacy infrastructure and next generation infrastructures are having on cloud and digital adoption, encompassed responses from 1,000 IT decision makers throughout nine countries.
The survey found approximately 97% of respondents believed legacy network infrastructure will have a hard time fulfilling the shifting requirements of both cloud and hybrid networks. On the other hand, 91% of respondents said next-generation networks were necessary to fulfill their cloud initiatives, and 98% said next generation networks are pivotal to managing the needs of their businesses and end users.
“This survey and the resulting data reveal the tremendous pressure that IT decision makers are under to execute their cloud strategies, achieve digital transformation and keep pace with the speed of innovation that is the norm in today’s hypercompetitive markets,” said Jerry Kennelly, co-founder and CEO, Riverbed Technology, in a statement, “It was almost unanimous that to have a successful cloud strategy, organizations must adopt next-gen software-defined networking immediately to support it. Riverbed is dedicated to ensuring this transformation is successful and that organizations are able to achieve the operational agility needed to thrive through the use of SD-WAN for cloud networking.”
According to Riverbed, legacy infrastructure is a hindrance for several companies. Legacy infrastructures were created at a time when IT resources were rigid, making updates extremely difficult. Provided they no longer would have to deal with the limits of legacy networks, 54% of respondents said they would be willing to take a longer commute to work; 53% said they would take abridged lunch breaks; 51% said they would physically write their emails; 42% would quit consuming coffee; and 39% would give up their office.
IT decision makers also noted several variables spearheading the shift toward next-generation networking technologies including: successfully achieving digital transformation at 56%, a strategic move to the cloud and hybrid networks 55%, increased demand for mobility at 51%, rising customer and end user expectation 51% and support for IoT devices 45%.
The survey also discovered a gap in the adoption of next generationa technology to support cloud and digital transformation. Nevertheless, 98% of respondents believed software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) technology will be essential in managing both cloud and hybrid networks within two years. Conversely, only 4% of respondents said they were currently benefiting from SD-WAN; however 52% said they intend to adopt SD-WAN in two years and 93% in four years.
