VoIP and unified communications applications have caused
performance issues with other applications as companies continue to
converge communications applications onto their IP networks,
according to a recent study conducted by network management vendor
Network General.
The study, which polled nearly 600 IT professionals about their
converged communications environments, found that nearly 40% of
responding companies have suffered application performance problems
because of the convergence of communications applications onto the
IP network. Almost 20% of respondents said they weren't sure
whether the performance problems were directly related to the
convergence of communications.
"The overall result here is, 'Yes, we're having performance
problems,' " said James Messer, Network General's director of
technical marketing. "And if you don't have a way to solve those
issues, you're perhaps setting yourself up for bigger problems down
the line."
The goal of the study, Messer said, was to show that companies
of all sizes are adding communications to their networks, and that
is resulting in a massive increase of network traffic. That
increase could have a huge impact on existing traffic.
The study found that 75% of companies estimate that a quarter of
their network traffic over the past three months was unified
communications-related, meaning – among other applications -- VoIP,
unified messaging and instant messaging. Forty percent of companies
queried said they use integrated voice, video and Web conferencing.
Nearly 70% have deployed VoIP, though a mere 12% say voice
communication is solely responsible for additional network
traffic.
Nevertheless, almost 80% of respondents said they expect the
network traffic from all of their communications applications to
increase over the next year.
"The old way of looking at and understanding applications isn't
working," Messer said. "There's got to be a more logical way, a
more comprehensive way. Look at all of these applications as a
single IT service and come out of the silos."
The study also found that 60% consider VoIP a critical service
in their communications network, while 30% said the Internet is the
communications medium that has caused the most additional network
traffic.
Additional findings include:
- Nearly half of respondents use email on a mobile device.
- Internet, video, email and Web conferencing account for 78% of
IT managers' additional network traffic.
- 79% of employees spend (if any time) 15 minutes or less per day
secretly watching Web-based videos at work.
- 45% said that, on a normal day, they use the Internet most
often for communications.
- More than half of the respondents said their company supports
instant messaging for business purposes.
"The network is getting faster and applications are growing and
becoming more complex," Messer said. And though traffic is growing,
most companies don't have the means to hire additional staff or the
money to boost support and maintenance.
Overall, he said, the findings show that as communications traffic
increases, IT managers are going to face more and more challenges.
"With the growth of unified communications and additional new
applications, IT departments are finding their environments are
becoming increasingly complex, as each new service often comes with
unique management tools," Messer said.
But the increase in network complexity hasn't slowed or stopped
the communications boom. The study states that only 9% of
respondents said they don't yet use some unified
communications-related applications in their businesses.
The trend toward unified communications will only grow,
according to Messer, as companies want to communicate seamlessly
with colleagues and customers while on the road and as more
companies devise mobility strategies.
"The increasing mobility of the workplace is driving unified
communications to a new usage level," he said. "Additionally, it is
through implementing unified communications -- and streamlining
business processes to support those communications -- that IT
managers will be able to help their companies communicate more
effectively."