IT Management Slideshow: Cat Videos, Facebook Clog Enterprise Networks

Main Application Categories

Work-related applications, such as those for infrastructure, email, and databases, consumed 13 percent of total bandwidth. The remaining five categories, storage, streaming video, encrypted Web sessions, file-sharing, and Internet utilities accounted for 76 percent of total bandwidth.

Video Explosion

Bandwidth consumed by streaming video quadrupled to 13 percent since the last reporting period; 97% of companies had at least one streaming application used.

P2P File-Sharing

Peer-to-peer file sharing grew more than any other application category, increasing seven-fold to consume 14 percent of overall bandwidth; At least one p2p application was detected on 78 percent of networks.

Online File Storage

Out of the 140 filesharing applications found on networks, 71 were browser-based; on average there were 13 different file sharing apps on a network.

Most Not Using Port 80

A significant chunk of applications are not even using port 80, so focusing only on that port means security managers are protecting the front door, while leaving the side and back door unlocked.

Facebook Dominates

Social networking applications consume only 1 percent of total bandwidth on enterprise networks; social networking apps were detected on 97% of networks.

Applications in the Network

Palo Alto Networks detected 1,282 unique applications across participating organizations.

Surfing the Web

In the Browser-based category, "Web browsing" accounted for 24% of the bandwidth consumed.

Client-Server Applications: Work and Play

Employees are using a mixed-bag of client server applications and they aren't all for work: For every Windows Update and Microsoft's Remote Desktop session, there are employees on the Playstation Network and World of Warcraft.

Bandwidth Superhighway

Palo Alto Networks detected 1,282 applications which covered 212 billion sessions consuming 9.6 petabytes of bandwidth.