Network Instruments announced the findings of its fourth annual State of the Network Global Study. The study’s findings suggest a need for IT organizations to monitor performance and identify potential trouble spots as organizations move to cloud-based projects, virtualization, and unified communication initiatives. The report concluded these technologies, while being adopted, present “enormous” troubleshooting challenges when attempting to identify network trouble spots.
The study of over 250 network professionals found cloud embracement on the rise, with 54 percent of survey respondents having implemented cloud computing. However, there are difficulties monitoring the cloud, with 56 percent of respondents saying they lack appropriate tools to troubleshoot cloud problems Nearly half (47 percent) reported improved application availability and lower infrastructure costs by moving to the cloud.
Despite the monitoring challenges of these new network environments, 85 percent of respondents said they realized benefits by migrating to the cloud, including infrastructure cost reductions and increased application availability. Similarly, 80 percent achieved cost reductions through virtualizing resources. One-third of organizations utilize some form of Software as a Service (SaaS), like SalesForce.com or Google Apps. One-quarter said they had invested in private clouds, and a small but significant number (13 percent) rely on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.
The report also indicated a strong future for video conferencing, with 90 percent saying they plan to deploy a video conferencing solution within 24 months. Thirty-five percent of respondents indicated troubleshooting abilities worsened after implementing virtualization While 85 percent of respondents cited identifying the problem source as the greatest troubleshooting challenge.
For more, read the eWeek article Cloud Computing, Virtualization on the Rise: Report.