Village Gamer

Softchoice’s analysis of 78 corporate networking environments reveals that neglecting device management is exposing organizations to the risk of network outage, ratcheting up maintenance costs, and degrading network performance. While global spending on network security is estimated at more than $7 billion annually and growing, without effective asset management, network maintenance represents a significant and largely overlooked threat to many organizations.

The findings of Softchoice’s Strategic Network Infrastructure study come after a series of high profile outages that included some of North America’s largest banks, wireless providers and e-commerce sites. The fallout has tarnished major brand names and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues for both organizations and consumers.

“In the age of mobility and cloud computing, the network is arguably the most important pillar in today’s IT environment,” said David MacDonald, president and CEO of Softchoice. “Whether due to a lack of tools and resources or effective strategy, network maintenance is becoming an Achilles heel for many organizations.”

Study Highlights

Over the past two years Softchoice analyzed network devices housed at 78 small, mid-market and enterprise organizations from across the United States and Canada. Key findings include:

• 36 percent of network devices have no vendor maintenance coverage whatsoever. In the event that one of these devices fails, the company has no recourse but to manage fixing or replacing the device themselves, a process that could potentially take days and effectively shut down operations.
• 23 percent of devices are at or approaching ‘end of support’. Though still in use, these devices are no longer supported by the manufacturer which means technical, onsite support or replacement options are no longer available.
• An average of 44 configuration errors were found within each environment. The severity of a configuration or ‘service affecting error’ can range from degrading network performance to causing an outright outage.
• Potential unrealized annual savings of $273 per device or an average of $23,000 per organization. This is based on a study average of 84 devices per organization and is due largely to paying maintenance costs on routing and switching devices that may not even exist or that may no longer be in use. For smaller organizations with approximately 150 employees, the median potential savings was $10,800. For larger organizations with roughly 1000 employees the median potential savings was $25,000 annually.

“Like good engineering, network infrastructure is largely invisible until it becomes an issue or worse, front page news,” added Jason Mcneill, Director of Business Development for Softchoice. “Organizations need to apply the same rigor to the network as they do to managing other essential IT assets. That means establishing processes so you know where these devices are in terms of their lifecycle, what updates are required and tracking maintenance coverage on a consistent basis.”