network barometer report 2014

NetworkBarometerReport

A gauge of global networks’ readiness to accelerate business20

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Copyright notice and disclaimer

© Dimension Data 2009–2014

Copyright and rights in databases subsist in this work. Any unauthorised copying, reproduction or other dealing in this work, or any part thereof, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner is an act of copyright infringement. Copying of certain portions of this work, such as tables, graphs, and certain extracts is permissible subject to the condition that (1) such portions do not constitute a substantial reproduction of the work (or a section) as a whole, and (2) the following notice accompanies all such portions: ‘Dimension Data Network Barometer Report 2014, © Dimension Data 2009–2014’. Any unauthorised copying, communication to the public, reproduction, or other dealings in this work, or any part thereof, renders the person who is responsible for such acts liable for civil law copyright infringement and, under certain circumstances, liable to criminal prosecution. All rights of the copyright owner are reserved.

The data and information contained in the Network Barometer Report are for information purposes only. While the commentary and hypotheses in this Report are based on rigorous data analysis and market experience, the content also contains opinion. Furthermore, while reasonable steps are taken to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the data and information provided, Dimension Data accepts no liability or responsibility whatsoever if such data or information is incorrect or inaccurate, for whatsoever reason. Dimension Data does not accept liability for any claims, loss or damages of any nature, arising as a result of the reliance on, or use of, such data or information by any individual or organisation.

The Network Barometer Report can be downloaded at:www.dimensiondata.com/networkbarometer

AboutDimension Data

Founded in 1983, Dimension Data plc is a global ICT services and solutions provider that uses its technology expertise, global service delivery capability, and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate the business ambitions of its clients. Dimension Data is a member of the NTT Group. It has designed, built and manage over 9,000 networks worldwide to enable more than 13 million users to connect to their organisations’ networks. Dimension Data has delivered over 1,400 Technology Lifecycle Management Assessments to date.

network barometerreport

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Tableof contentsExecutive summary 2

Results 5Question 1: Technology lifecycle – how old are today’s networks? 5

This year’s results 6

How we interpret the results 9

Summary 11

Question 2: Service incidents – do older networks cause more failures and require increased support? 12



Summary 18

Question 3: Technology type – are today’s networks prepared for architectural trends such as cloud and enterprise mobility? 19



Summary 22

Recommendations 23

Appendix A – sample distribution 25

Appendix B – services data 30

network barometerreport20

14About theNetwork Barometer Report 2014

See Appendix A for detailed breakdown.

288 technologyassessments

74,000 devices

5 regions

32 countries

11industries

Technology data gathered from:

Support services data gathered from:

4 Global Service Centres in

1 2 3a larger

sample sizemore evenly

spread across regions and industries

new supportservices data

Boston Frankfurt Bangalore Johannesburg

91,000 service

incidents

1

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2014

Proof that network success depends as much (and perhaps more) on operational support capabilities as on technology.

In this year’s Network Barometer Report, we’ve incorporated data gathered from Dimension Data’s Global Service Centres (GSCs). This information relates to support service requests – or ‘incidents’ – logged against client devices under Dimension Data’s management. When combined with the network discovery data gathered from our Technology Lifecycle Management Assessments, it provides a multidimensional view of networks today.

In interpreting the results, Dimension Data has brought its strategic focus on ICT services and extensive experience in maintaining, supporting, managing, and outsourcing its clients’ networks to bear on the Report’s goal: to gauge the readiness of today’s networks to accelerate business. Our findings may be viewed by some as controversial.

Our overall conclusion: The great majority of service incidents are not related to network devices. In addition, maintenance requirements for these devices vary depending on their lifecycle stage. The most important requirement for the network to successfully support business is therefore a mature set of operational tools and processes.

We’ve reached this conclusion by asking ourselves three searching questions. These were answered by analyses and interpretation of the data sets, which are captured in more detail in the rest of this Report.

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Q1: A1:• More than half of all devices (51%) are now ageing or obsolete.

• Of all devices, 27% are now ‘later’ in their product lifecycle, when the vendor begins to reduce support for the device.

Over the past few years, as the percentage of ageing and obsolete devices steadily increased, the conventional assumption was that a technical refresh cycle was imminent. However, our data shows that organisations are clearly willing to sweat their network assets for longer than expected. Some of the drivers behind this behaviour include:

• a sustained focus on cost savings following the global economic crisis, particularly reduced capex budgets, which may have disrupted the usual three- to five-year refresh patterns

• the growing availability and uptake of as-a-service ICT consumption models which reduce the need for organisations to invest in their own IT infrastructure

• the introduction of programmable, software-defined networks which may be causing organisations to ‘wait and see’ before selecting and implementing new technology – a factor we expect will become more influential in the next 18 to 36 months (also see About software-defined networking.)

Q2:

A2:• Our results show that older devices fail less frequently and take less time to repair.

• However, older networks do have special support requirements, particularly sparing and device swap-out strategies. Without these, failures caused by older devices would take longer to resolve.

• The great majority of service incidents (84%) aren’t device-related, but are caused by human error, environment problems, or telecom failure, all of which fall outside the remit of a conventional support contract.

Q3:

A3:For example, enterprise mobility requires pervasive wireless connectivity which, in turn, requires at least three basic features in the access network: power-over-Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet on the client side, and 10-gigabit uplinks. This year, we found that:

• 51% of all ports support power-over-Ethernet, roughly the same as in 2013.

• 45% of access switch ports support gigabit Ethernet, up from 33% in 2013.

• 23% of access switches support 10-gigabit uplinks, up from 11% in 2013.

We see this slight improvement as a reaction to the increased number of mobile devices used in the workplace, rather than the result of a planned and proactive strategy to prepare for enterprise mobility and cloud.

Organisations continue to delay refreshing their networks, as the percentage of ageing and obsolete devices has increased to its highest level in six years:

In terms of technology lifecycle, how old are today’s networks?

A resounding ‘no’.

Do older networks cause more failures and network downtime, and require increased support?

If organisations are sweating their network assets, how well prepared are their networks for architectural trends such as enterprise mobility?

Despite the general tendency to sweat assets, some technology refresh is occurring, primarily to address current architectural trends.

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2014

What we recommendWe know that it’s good to sweat network assets some of the time, the question is: when? Given the financial and operational benefits of older devices, such as lower failure rates and shorter time to repair, organisations can choose to sweat their assets for as long as possible, subject to organisational standards and compliance policies. However, they must also have a mature set of operational tools and processes in place, including sparing strategies for obsolete equipment, to support greater network availability as vendor support diminishes during later lifecycle stages.

The benefits of sweating assets notwithstanding, organisations must make sure that their networks can accommodate important architectural trends such as enterprise mobility and cloud computing, as these advancements will provide significant competitive advantage. However, upgrading networks to support these developments again puts pressure on internal IT support, as newer devices are more susceptible to service incidents.

The single most important thing organisations can do to ensure their networks are able to support business is to invest in their operational support tools and processes.

For more advice on how to implement this Report’s findings in your organisation, see our Recommendations.

About the Network Barometer Report

The Network Barometer Report 2014 presents the aggregate data gathered from Dimension Data’s Technology Lifecycle Management Assessments conducted for clients around the world in 2013. It also contains data relating to service incidents, logged at our Global Service Centres, for client networks that we support. Dimension Data compiles, analyses, compares, and interprets the data in order to gauge the readiness of today’s networks to accelerate business.


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ResultsQuestion 1: Technology lifecycle – how old are today’s networks?

Abouttechnology lifecycles

In order to establish the age and viability of technology assets, most vendors have standardised milestones through which they progress their products towards obsolescence. For example, Cisco uses six technology lifecycle milestones. These run from future-end-of-sale, the announcement of the lifecycle milestone dates, to last-day-of-support, the date after which Cisco’s Technical Assistance Center will no longer support the product. Common to all vendors are end-of-sale and end-of-support.

To normalise the data for this report, we’ve defined three lifecycle categories:

• Current These devices are presently shipping and have full access to vendor support services.

• AgeingVendors have announced that these devices are past end-of-sale. They’ve not yet passed end-of-support, but vendor support is increasingly limited.

• Obsolete These devices are past end-of-support.

Table 1 lists these three categories, and the maintenance and support requirements typical of each.

About the Technology Lifecycle Management Assessment

This ICT assessment service from Dimension Data discovers installed assets on the network, identifies their lifecycle statuses, determines maintenance coverage, and flags potential security vulnerabilities. The Assessment assists organisations to align their IT infrastructure with best practices for configuration, security, and patch management, thereby ensuring that they’re not exposing themselves to unnecessary risk. The technology lifecycle data used in this Report comes from these automated Assessments, not from a survey. Click here for more information.

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http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/Downloadable%20Documents/Business%20Agility%20with%20Network%20Asset%20Planning%20Brochure.pdf

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Table 1:

Technology lifecycle stages, associated risk levels, and required support environment maturity

Lifecycle status

Time (years)

Risks Required support environment maturity

Current 0-3 • settling period during which product bugs and hardware stability issues are identified

• organisations’ support teams learn new features of the device

• controlled introduction into the environment, requiring mature release and deployment processes

• new and/or advanced technology requires updated, technology-specific training

• mature change management processes required to handle updates and patches, as required

Ageing 3-5 • increased support costs with some vendors• decreasing support later in this stage

(for example, no more software bug fixes)

• all business-as-usual processes apply, including capacity and change management

• some local sparing might be required for later-stage equipment

Obsolete 5+ • no, or limited, access to spares• no, or limited, vendor support for

complex issues

• logistics and change management relating to local spares warehousing

Figure 1:

Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices, global average

For the fourth consecutive year, the devices in today’s networks have aged in terms of their lifecycle status. This year, more than half of all devices were ageing or obsolete, which means that networks are the oldest they’ve been since the first Network Barometer Report was published in 2009.

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Overall

35%

38%

45%

48%51%

43%2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

This year’s results

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Figure 2:

Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices by region

OverallMiddle East & AfricaEuropeAustraliaAsiaAmericas

201220112010 20142013

37%38%

22%

37%

44%

39%40%44%44%

54%

35%34%

40%

53%51%

35%38%

56%

41%

52%

30%

38%

55%59%

53%

35%38%

45%48%

51%

201220112010 20142013

AverageMiddle East & AfricaEuropeAustraliaAsia PacificAmericas

37%38%

22%

37%

44%

39%40%44%44%

54%

35%34%

40%

53%51%

35%38%

56%

41%

52%

30%

38%

55%59%

53%

35%38%

45%48%

51%

The Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe showed notable increases in the percentage of ageing and obsolete devices. While Australia, and Middle East & Africa (MEA), appear to have improved marginally from last year, the overall trend in those two regions is clearly upwards when viewed over more than one year.

Much of the increase can be explained by macroeconomics. Network spend is often linked to regional economic conditions, slowing during sluggish times and accelerating during times of growth. Last year, Australia and MEA showed significantly higher percentages of ageing and obsolete devices – over 50% – whereas the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific were closer to 40%. This coincided with the economic slowdown in the former two regions, in contrast to the slow, but stable, economic growth in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

This year, the economic slump in Asia Pacific inflated the region’s percentage of ageing devices. Steady economic growth continued in the Americas, which had a higher percentage of ageing devices than in 2013, but not quite as high as in other regions.

Much of the increase can be explained by macroeconomics. Network spend is often linked to regional economic conditions, slowing during sluggish times and accelerating during times of growth.

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Figure 3:

Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices by industry

Eight out of the 11 industry sectors had roughly the same or slightly higher percentages of ageing and obsolete devices compared with last year. Three showed large increases: financial services (+13%); government, health care, and education (+11%); and service providers and telecommunications (+33%). The upwards trend in these sectors supports our view that the global financial crisis of recent years still has a lingering effect today. This tendency to sweat network assets for longer is perhaps simply due to a lack of funds for technology refreshes that aren’t seen as critical.

The more substantial ageing of assets we’ve noticed in the service providers and telecommunications sectors could be due to various factors. Companies in these industries are typically massive organisations with significant operational staff complements and relatively mature support processes for managing their networking infrastructures. They can therefore afford to take on the greater risk of ageing networks.

Service providers may also be sweating the assets they’ve deployed on clients’ premises. In many cases, this equipment serves primarily as a point of demarcation, or as ‘network termination units’, for the network connectivity provided by the service provider. So the service provider may not require the advanced features of newer devices, which would be the primary motivation for refreshing or upgrading equipment.

20122011 20142013

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48%

55%

60%

41%

40%

34%

40%

49%

23%

50%

32%

28%

22%

35%

35%

54%

33%

34%

56%

48%

36% 38

%50

%46

% 48%

34%

51%

44%

30%

48%

44%

54%

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40% 44

%

28%

47%

29%

37%

18%

47%

37% 41

%61

%

35% 38

%45

% 48%

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Figure 4:

Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage in the Network Barometer Report 2013

Figure 5:

Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage in the Network Barometer Report 2014

8%

52%40%

Obsolete

Ageing

Current

11%

49%

40%Obsolete

Ageing

Current

Figures 4 and 5 compare the percentage of discovered devices by lifecycle category over the last year. Note that the 3% decrease in the percentage of current devices is matched by a 3% increase in the percentage of obsolete devices. Moreover, breaking down the percentage of ageing devices into their subcategories shows that the percentage of devices in the ‘late’ lifecycle stages, when the vendor begins reducing support (that is, end-of-engineering, end-of-software-maintenance, end-of-contract-renewal, and last-day-of-sale), has jumped from 20% last year to 27% this year.

How we interpret the results

In general, we attribute this to organisations adopting a strategy of ‘fixing’ only what’s ‘broken’. When a device reaches the later lifecycle stages, the organisation has typically already decided to sweat that asset for as long as possible. That may be because the older device is situated in an area of the network that isn’t critical: should the device fail, the impact of a network outage is low. The few assets that were refreshed last year were probably in network areas where the need for advanced features was becoming pressing, or where the risk of extended downtime was too high.

Our view is that this strategy is sound ... but comes with certain caveats (see overleaf).

Today’s networks are getting ‘older’

As networks have continued to age over the past several years, a common expectation was that a technology refresh was imminent – organisations wouldn’t risk allowing their networks to age indefinitely. Thus far, however, the expected refresh hasn’t materialised. Organisations have been far more economical in their approach, and more willing to risk getting by with ageing equipment for the sake of ‘running lean’, sometimes avoiding capex at all costs.

However, a key question remains: If organisations continue to sweat their assets, do they increase the risk of network failures and downtime?

To shed light on this, the Network Barometer Report 2014 incorporates support services data gleaned from four of Dimension Data’s GSCs ... and the results have been revealing.

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Top tips to sweatyour assets safely

Have an accurate inventory of your entire network estate.

Understand the function of each device and how critical it is to the network’s uptime.

Know at which stage in their lifecycles these devices are.

Have the appropriate operational support strategy in place to resolve any performance issues or outages that may occur, as vendor support will be either limited or unavailable during later lifecycle stages.


2014

10

Ensure that the device’s capabilities are not constraining architectural changes, which have driven upgrades in other areas of the network.

Talk to us about how a Technology Lifecycle Management Assessment can give you a clear view of your networking estate, while an IT Support Assessment can help you ensure that your support systems and processes are the right fit for your organisation.

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11

How old aretoday’s networks?

6 yearsoldestthey’ve been in

or obsolete

more than

halfof all devicesare ageing

11%are obsolete

we recommendsweating your assets is okay

butknow your devices

and their lifecycle stages

understand potential network impacts if devices fail

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Question 2: Service incidents – do older networks cause more failures and require increased support?

This year, we analysed over 91,000 service incidents – or ‘trouble tickets’ – handled by Dimension Data’s GSCs. We wanted to understand the types of issues we’ve encountered while maintaining our clients’ networks, and how these issues relate to the device lifecycle data. (Please refer to Appendix A for detailed information and commentary on the sample size of our services data.)

AboutDimension Data’s GSCs Dimension Data’s GSCs are organisational hubs situated at eight central locations in five regions around the world:

Americas: Boston, US; and Santiago, Chile

Asia Pacific: Auckland, New Zealand; Bangalore, India; and Singapore

Australia: Melbourne, Australia

Europe: Frankfurt, Germany

Middle East & Africa: Johannesburg, South Africa


2014

12

This year, we analysed over 91,000 service incidents – or ‘trouble tickets’ – handled by Dimension Data’s GSCs.

At these Centres, Dimension Data’s service delivery and technical support experts receive calls from clients and resolve technical service tickets, requests, and problems in 13 local languages (depending on the GSC’s location).

The GSCs receive over a million such requests from 10,000 clients every year – more than 2,500 incidents each day.

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Figure 6:

Covered assets by lifecycle stage

9%

46%

45%Obsolete

Ageing

Current

The lifecycle stage distribution of the devices that Dimension Data supports mirrors the lifecycle distribution of our assessment discovery data. (In the assessment discovery data, 49% of devices were current, 40% were ageing, and 11% were obsolete – see Figure 5.)

Figure 7:

Incidents by resolution category

Figure 7 shows the breakdown of incidents by resolution category. One of the most significant findings is that the largest cause of incidents is human error: nearly one-third of all incidents (6% configuration errors, plus 26% other human errors) are, therefore, potentially avoidable.

Telecom, or wide area network (WAN), failures are the next most frequent root cause, at 22%. This is to be expected, considering the complexity of maintaining and managing the many different components of a geographically dispersed telecom network.

Third on the list of the most frequent causes of service incidents are physical environment problems such as loss of power, airconditioning failures, and temperature control problems. These account for 15% of all incidents.

Finally, in fourth position, are device-related problems, with 14% of all incidents attributed to hardware. Including the 2% of incidents attributed to software bugs, we see that only 16% of all service incidents fall under the remit of the device maintenance providers.

This means that a massive 84% of the network’s operational burden falls outside typical maintenance contracts and therefore must be addressed by the organisation’s internal support processes.

22%

26%

15%

14%

9%

6%

Environment

Telco failure

Other human errors

Configuration error

Asset capacity

Hardware failure

Software bug

Bandwidth

Scheduled outage

4% 2% 2%

In the assessment discovery data, 49% of devices were current, 40% were ageing, and 11% were obsolete.

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2014

Lifecycle stage Asset % Incident %

Current 46% 40%

Ageing 45% 53%

Obsolete 9% 7%

Table 2:

Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage by incident

As expected, there’s a correlation between incidents raised and the lifecycle stage of devices. For example, 46% of all devices under management were current, and caused 40% of all incidents. For the purposes of this analysis, Dimension Data filtered the data to show only hardware failures and software problems. All other incidents are caused by factors that can’t be regarded as device failures.

Figure 8:

Device failure rate by lifecycle stage

Manufacturers generally target a hardware failure rate of 4% per annum. The 2014 data shows that the failure rate of the devices in Dimension Data’s maintenance base is indeed close to this level.

One might expect the failure rate of obsolete devices to be higher than current or ageing devices, as obsolete devices are older and maintenance options are limited. However, this year’s analysis shows that the failure rate of obsolete devices is about a percentage point lower than either current or ageing devices.

Figure 9:

Mean-time-to-repair by lifecycle stage

If obsolete devices are less likely to fail than current or ageing devices, how long would they take to repair should they fail? One might expect that older devices that fail would cause longer downtime than current or ageing devices. But, again, the results prove otherwise.

Figure 9 shows that the average mean-time-to-repair for all devices is 3.4 hours. Current devices take about 48 minutes longer to repair than the average. Ageing devices take the shortest time to repair, about 42 minutes shorter than average. Obsolete devices take slightly longer to repair than ageing devices, at 3.3 hours, substantially less time than it takes to repair current devices.

In summary, obsolete devices fail less often than current devices. And, when they do fail, problems are quicker to resolve: about an hour less than for current devices.

In summary, obsolete devices fail less often than current devices. And, when they do fail, problems are quicker to resolve: about an hour less than for current devices.

4.2%

2.7%

3.3% 3.4%

Average

Obsolete

Ageing

Current

3.78%4.14%

2.73%

Obsolete

Ageing

Current

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Cyberattack! How safe is your network?

The Heartbleed security vulnerability made headlines around the world in 2014. Terms such as ‘hacktivism’, ‘cybercrime’, even ‘cyberwar’ were used widely, showing that network security is a serious concern for all organisations. This poses the question: exactly how vulnerable is your network compared with others in your industry or region, and what should you do about it?

Count your PSIRTs

One indication of a network’s vulnerability is the number, and degree of criticality, of device software vulnerabilities it contains. As vulnerabilities become known, Cisco publishes what are called PSIRTs. PSIRT stands for Product Security Incident Response Team, but within the context of network security, the term refers to a software bug or vulnerability that’s been identified after extensive lab testing and research.

Each PSIRT has a unique number and denotes a particular operating system weakness that may also pose a security risk. Hackers may discover and exploit such vulnerabilities in a network, which can lead to a denial of service, or allow the hacker to gain access to sensitive data. The more PSIRTs identified on a device or in a network, the higher the risk of a security breach due to the increased ‘attack surface’ available to exploit.

Growing concerns

Measured by the increasing number of PSIRTs published by Cisco over the last few years, it’s concerning that the general trend is towards more vulnerable networks.

Adding to the concern is that, according to our data, networks aren’t improving either. Over the last four years, the percentage of devices with at least one vulnerability has remained relatively stable overall.

Figure 10:

Number of PSIRTs announced per year

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2004

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2008

2009

2010

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PSIRTs

Trend

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Figure 11:

Percentage of devices with PSIRTs by region

Regionally, the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe saw relatively large increases in PSIRT percentages from last year, while Australia and MEA remained fairly stable. The larger percentages aren’t surprising, given that organisations are sweating their assets. There’s a strong correlation between the number of ageing devices and the percentage of devices with vulnerabilities. Also, as more services are added to the network, more software is required to effectively operate the infrastructure. This increases the overall operational risk of owning an unmaintained network.

Types of security vulnerabilities

The risk posed to your network by a particular vulnerability depends on what type of PSIRT it is and where in the network the devices which have that vulnerability are located. Also, the longer a vulnerability has been known, the higher the risk, as it gives attackers more time to learn how to exploit it. See Table 3 in Appendix B for more information about the 10 most prevalent PSIRTs in 2014.

Be still my bleeding heart

The Heartbleed vulnerability announced this year was, and still is, a very serious threat if not remedied. As an open-source software bug, it puts a range of operating systems and vendor appliances at risk, and can allow attackers to unravel security measures such as user names and passwords.

Luckily, the response from top websites was swift and many operators have already patched at least their Internet-facing systems. While the external Web presence is the most important to safeguard, it will most likely take internal network environments some time to protect themselves fully against Heartbleed. For more information on Heartbleed and our recommended remediation plan, email [email protected].

How to protect yourself

While it’s not possible to know about every security threat in advance, it’s best to build the relevant security capabilities in your organisation to minimise exposure to vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed.

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AverageMiddle East & AfricaEuropeAustraliaAsia PacificAmericas

201220112010 20142013

46%

65%

85%

55%

67%

52%

76%82%

66%

85%

33%

73% 72%

80% 80%

27%

69%

61%

50%

60% 59%

84%89%

78% 79%

38%

73%75%

67%74%


2014

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Key security capabilities to consider:• visibility and discovery tools – both network- and

application-based

• incident response plans and automated workflow

• vulnerability and remediation management

• risk profiling appropriate to business context

• network-, application-, and data-centric protection controls that can be rapidly applied when risks are discovered and assessed

How we interpret the resultsIn the technology lifecycle section, we saw that organisations are choosing to sweat their assets. Networking devices have continued to get older for the fourth year in a row. The question we asked was: are organisations exposing themselves to increased network failures and downtime, since more than half of their network devices are ageing, with more than a quarter of those at an older lifecycle stage when vendor support is limited?

To answer this question, we analysed more than 91,000 service incidents handled by our GSCs, covering more than 400,000 devices under our management. Our findings turned conventional wisdom on its head:

• Obsolete devices were 25% less likely to fail than devices that were current.

• It took, on average, one hour less to resolve issues on

obsolete devices than on current devices.

These findings are supported by Dimension Data’s practical experience in supporting networks of all ages. Current devices are subject to a ‘burn-in’ period in which software bugs and operating system problems are still prevalent. Generally speaking, a new device is most likely to fail during the first 90 to 180 days after installation. Any issues related to the first version of a device or operating system, or arising from manufacturing or shipping the device to site, will manifest shortly after installation. Once a device is past this ‘burn-in’ period, fewer incidents occur.

Later, when the device is obsolete, there’s usually only one remediation plan if it fails: to immediately swap it with a spare. This reduces mean-time-to-repair, as it’s generally quicker to replace a device than diagnose and troubleshoot the particular software bug or hardware problem. This, however, requires a mature sparing strategy on the part of the support organisation, such as those offered by Dimension Data. Without such programmes, obsolete devices would take much longer to repair.

Our conclusion is that a refreshed network places a heavier burden on an organisation’s support services infrastructure than an ageing network does. Based on the rate of technology failures and resolution time, and the added benefit of reduced capex, the decision to sweat network assets is sound.

However, it’s crucial to thoroughly consider the root causes of service incidents. Our 2014 data indicates that only 16% of all incidents were related to device failure. This leaves a massive 84% of service incidents caused by other factors such as telecom failures or environment issues. These statistics are worrying because a large proportion of incidents fall outside of a support provider’s traditional remit, and are therefore up to the organisation itself to resolve.

The implication is that an organisation needs mature processes for problem, change, and configuration management, as well as the right tools and people, to handle incidents effectively.

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Dimension Data recommends that it’s best to standardise on hardware and software as much as possible, as this reduces both risk and operational complexity in the long run. The more software and hardware versions used on the network, the higher the risk and the harder it becomes to maintain. Operational efficiency is also hampered due to feature disparity.

Patches should not be applied only for the sake of patching. Rather, patch devices based on a calculated risk. For example, if a device is vulnerable, but it doesn’t support critical systems or interconnect with an important part of the network, the priority to patch might be lower than for a device that does.

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2014Do older networks cause more failures and require increased support?

we recommendConduct a thorough auditto understand the maturity and suitablity of your support systems and processes.

Partner with a support services expertto fill any support gaps you may have.

16%only

of incidents

=devicefailures

84%so

of incidents

=outside

yourmaintenance

supplier’s remit

No, failure rates and mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) are lower for obsolete equipment.

current3.78%

ageing4.14%

obsolete2.95%

Average MTTR by lifecycle status

current4.2 hrs

overall3.4 hrs

obsolete3.3 hrs

ageing2.7 hrs

Failure rate by lifecycle status

18

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Question 3: Technology type – are today’s networks prepared for architectural trends such as cloud and enterprise mobility?Our observations about ageing networks and operational support maturity led us to ask: are organisations still investing in their networks to address architectural trends such as cloud and enterprise mobility? Or are they more inclined to wait and see what newer trends, such as software-defined networking, will bring before investing in any new technology?

Aboutsoftware-defined networking

Software-defined networking makes networks more intelligent, programmable, and automated. This is brought about by changes at the networking device level. The intelligent, programmable part of each device – the software that determines how the device controls and directs data – is split from the packet-forwarding engine, and centralised. Software-defined networks therefore use hardware networking devices that are configured by a central, software-based controller.

Hence the term ‘software-defined’: the network is no longer configured by manually adjusting individual devices, but controlled by software.

Click here to read more about Dimension Data’s Software-defined Networking Development Model, which can help you take the first step in preparing your network for the future of networking.

In last year’s Report, we argued that enterprise mobility would necessitate an evolution in the access switching network architecture, from largely wired to mostly wireless infrastructures. In an environment where the great majority of end users connect to the network wirelessly, the traditional campus access-switching network must evolve. In the old model, 80% of the switch ports were for dedicated, wired users while 20% were for shared, wireless users. This ratio will need to change: 80% of switch ports will have to be for shared, wireless users, and 20% for dedicated, wired users. This ‘80/20 flip’ is described in Figure 12.

19

http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/technologies/software-defined-networking

20


2014

Wireless LAN controller

48-port LAN switches

• wired network (100 users)

• cabling (140 points)

• IP phones

• printers

• video endpoints

• security systems

• wireless networks (100–200 devices)

• cabling (1 point per access point)

• smartphones

• tablets

• laptops

Current – traditional wired and wireless access networks

48-port LAN switch with built

in controller

• wired network (10 users)

• cabling (20 points)

• video endpoints (some could be wireless)

• security systems

• wireless networks (100–300 devices)

• cabling (1 point per access point)

• smartphones

• tablets

• laptops

• printers

• video, etc.

Future – predominantly wireless access networks

Figure 12:

From wired to wireless – the architecture of current versus future networks

For this change to occur, network devices in the access layer require at least three features:

• power-over-Ethernet to power the access points

• gigabit Ethernet ports on the client side to enable the 300–800MB speeds of 802.11n/ac

• 10-gigabit uplinks – as more users access the network via fewer ports, uplinks need greater capacity in order to avoid congestion

The type of technology that organisations choose to refresh can therefore indicate whether they’re preparing for this change to pervasive wireless connectivity ... or not, as our 2013 results showed. Last year:

• 49% of all ports supported power-over-Ethernet

• 32% of all ports supported gigabit Ethernet

• only 11% of access switches supported 10-gigabit uplinks

Based on these discovery results, organisations were clearly investing in wireless access points and controllers, but not making similar investments in their broader access network infrastructure.

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In 2014 Dimension Data again saw strong growth in its wireless business, up approximately 30% from the previous year. Organisations continue to invest in pervasive wireless connectivity at the edge of their networks. In addition, we saw evidence of technology refresh in the access network infrastructure needed to support this wireless connectivity:

• Gigabit access switch ports increased from one-third of all switches last year to just under half this year.

• Switches that support 10-gigabit uplinks increased from just over one-tenth to just under a quarter of all switches.

• There was a much smaller increase in ports that support power-over-Ethernet, from just under half last year to just over half this year.

How we interpret the resultsThe growth in the percentage of access switches that support gigabit Ethernet and 10-gigabit uplink capacity tells us that some refresh was taking place to support architectural trends like pervasive wireless connectivity and enterprise mobility. This is supported by our technology lifecycle data which shows that most refresh occurred early in the obsolescence cycle where the percentage of ageing devices dropped from 28% last year to 23% this year – as most ageing access switches in our sample are still at early stages in their lifecycles.

Organisations tend to sweat their network assets for as long as possible to save costs, unless the need for specific new features becomes more pressing.

growing at

+30% pa

WLAN bookings

1/2of all access switches

support PoE

Still at around half of all ports

= 51%

1/3of all access switches

support GE

Increased to just less than half of

all ports at

45%

Increased to about a quarter of all posts at

23%

11%of all access switches

support 10GBuplinks

For example, if an organisation requires greater bandwidth to support pervasive wireless connectivity thanks to a host of new mobile devices brought to work by employees, it would have no choice but to refresh those devices sooner.

22


2014Are today’s networks prepared for trends such as enterprise mobility?

we recommendHave an accurate inventoryof your network estate.

Regularly reviewyour long-term network architecture requirements.

Understand your ‘as-is’ state,define your ‘to-be’ state, and plan the steps of your journey to get there.

gigabitEthernet

45%of access ports

support

10-gigabituplinks

power-over -Ethernet

23%

51%

of access switches

of access switches

support

support

22

23


14

RecommendationsGiven this year’s results, Dimension Data recommends that the most effective way to improve your network service levels and ensure maximum network availability is to invest in mature operational systems and support processes – particularly problem and change management – rather than refreshing technology simply for the sake of avoiding obsolescence.

Figure 13:

Dimension Data’s operational support maturity model

Moving towards the ‘optimised’ level doesn’t necessarily require you to have all capabilities in-house. In fact, many day-to-day IT operational requirements are not strategic to most organisations: knowing how to replace a fixed-access switch in the wiring closet doesn’t add to your organisation’s competitive advantage.

In many cases, it’s best to partner with an expert provider of network managed or outsourcing services. This will free up your own IT resources to focus on strategic projects that substantially build your competitive advantage.

These points notwithstanding, the primary requirement of the network is to deliver the services necessary to support business. Architectural trends such as cloud and enterprise mobility – and, eventually, software-defined networking – provide significant opportunities for organisations to improve employee productivity, increase sales, and shorten time-to-market. Therefore, the primary criterion for deciding whether to refresh your network is its ability to support business requirements – not whether the device is obsolete.

In summary, the decision of whether or not to upgrade your network depends equally on your technical and architectural requirements, and the maturity of your operational support systems and processes. Dimension Data recommends the following approach to the technology refresh decision:

As shown in Figure 13, and based on our experience in evaluating organisations’ operational support maturity, the vast majority (90%) of organisations are still at the first or second level of maturity. These levels are characterised by a lack of standard processes, ad hoc troubleshooting tools, and ambiguous roles and responsibilities for IT staff, resulting in extended network downtime and increased operational costs.

Initial

• ad hoc• undocumented• unpredictable• poorly controlled• reactive• no automation• roles and responsibilities

undefined

Repeatable • some documented

processes• processes not

uniformly used• some automation• limited definition of

roles and responsibilities

Defined • processes are proactive• automation exists for

defined processes• roles are well defined• mature asset and change

management processes

Managed • set quality goals• guaranteed SLAs• monitoring and reporting• processes are integrated• automation tools

are integrated• capacity planning

Optimised • IT and business

metric linkage• continuous service

improvement• IT improves

business process• business planning

Complete lack of organisation

Holding downthe fort

Well runcost centre

Businessalignment

Businessdriver

Whether an organisation chooses to sweat its network assets as long as possible or if it decides to refresh some or all of its network, robust and mature operational support processes will ensure maximum availability.

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2014

Figure 14:

The technology refresh decision tree

The starting point is visibility: gain a clear view of your infrastructure by creating and maintaining an accurate inventory of all your networking devices. Then, understand each device’s lifecycle status, security vulnerabilities, and future-readiness. Lastly, define your organisation’s capability and maturity in supporting and maintaining this crucial asset – your network – as the platform for your business.

To help you with all your network assessment, maintenance, and support requirements, Dimension Data offers the following:

• Technology Lifecycle Management Assessment

• Network Optimisation Assessment

• Network Architecture Consulting Workshop

• IT Support Assessment

• IT Service Management Assessment

• Uptime and Insite Maintenance and Support Services

• Managed Services for Enterprise Networks

• IT outsourcing services for the network tower

Acquire additional support services

Can the organisation effectively

support the device?

Do not refreshthe device

Is the device fitfor purpose?

Move the device to another part of

the network

Can it be moved to another part of

the network?

Refresh device

Yes

YesYes

No

No

No

The starting point is visibility: gain a clear view of your infrastructure by creating and maintaining an accurate inventory of all your networking devices.

http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/Downloadable%20Documents/Business%20Agility%20with%20Network%20Asset%20Planning%20Brochure.pdf

http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/Downloadable%20Documents/Network%20Optimisation%20Assessment%20Brochure.pdf

http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/Solutions/Networking/Pages/Overview.aspx

http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/Services/Support-Services/Pages/Support-Assessments.aspx

http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/Solutions/Networking/Pages/Overview.aspx

http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/Services/Support-Services

http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/Services/Managed-Services/Pages/Enterprise-Networks.aspx

http://www.dimensiondata.com/Global/Services/IT-Outsourcing/Pages/Network-and-communications.aspx

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Appendix A – sample distributionThis appendix provides details about the sample data sets used for the information in this report.

Technology lifecycle, type, and vulnerability dataThe technology lifecycle information published in this Report was gathered during the 2013 calendar year through Dimension Data’s Technology Lifecycle Management Assessments conducted for 288 clients around the world, covering 74,000 devices. This is a significantly larger sample size than last year, which covered 233 Assessments and 60,000 devices.

Information from the Network Barometer Reports of 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 was gathered during the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 calendar years respectively.

Dimension Data’s Technology Lifecycle Management Assessment is a highly automated service that uses technology tools to scan our clients’ networks. The information gathered from these scans is analysed on a centralised portal, using a standardised process and framework.

Figure 15:

Percentage of nodes (devices) by organisation size

Figure 16:

Percentage of nodes (devices) by industry sector

This year, the data sample achieved greater balance among industry sectors. In previous years, there was some bias towards government; health care and education; and financial services, which together accounted for more than half of the sample set. This combined portion has shrunk significantly this year, with automotive and manufacturing, and consumer goods and retail, now occupying the top two positions.

The majority of data came from enterprise and large organisations, reflecting Dimension Data’s client base.

2%

86%

12%

Medium

Large

Enterprise

Small

19%

17%

11%

2%

12%

3%

Automotive andmanufacturing

Business services

Construction andreal estateConsumer goodsand retail

Financial services

Government health careand educationMedia – entertainmentand hospitalityResources – utilitiesand energyService providersand telecommunications

6%

3%

5%

17%

5%

Technology

Travel and transportation

2%

86%

12%

Medium

Large

Enterprise

Small

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2014

Figure 17:

Percentage of nodes (devices), by region

Figure 18:

Number of assessments by country

This year’s report covered 32 countries in five regions.

Spai

n

Sout

h A

fric

a

Switz

erla

nd

Sing

apor

e

Phili

ppin

es

Nig

eria

New

Zea

land

Net

herla

nds

Mor

occo

Mal

aysia

Keny

a

Japa

n

Italy

Indo

nesia

Indi

a

Hon

g Ko

ng

Ger

man

y

Fran

ce

Cze

ch R

epub

lic

Chi

na

Chi

le

Can

ada

Braz

il

Bots

wan

a

Belg

ium

Aus

tral

ia

53

10

3 2 36

1

6 10

17

3

23

14

1

6

28

2 48

1 2 46

29

12

Tanz

ania

Thai

land

UA

E

Uga

nda

UK US

3 2 2 1

17 18

18%

26%

29%

Americas

Asia Pacific

Australia

Europe

Middle East & Africa

11%

16%

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14

This year, we introduced a new data set to corroborate the assessment results with helpdesk data. Our aim was to deepen our understanding of the business impact of obsolescence on network failures and downtime. We analysed over 91,000 service incidents – or ‘trouble tickets’ – handled by four of our GSCs, to understand the types of incidents we’ve handled in maintaining our clients’ networks, and the relationship of these incidents to the lifecycle data.

Appendix B – services data

Figure 19:

Number of service incidents by region

The analysis of the incident data was based on a subset of Dimension Data’s total maintenance base. We chose a selected set of network asset types in order to align with the technology aspects of this report, and account for the merging of systems following mergers and acquisitions.

With just under a million devices creating an incident volume of almost 91,000, this represents a statistically relevant sample.

Figure 20:

Device type count, by region

Table 3:

Top 10 PSIRTs

Rank PSIRT title Count Penetration rate

Last year’s rank

Published

1 Cisco IOS Software Network Address Translation Vulnerabilities – 112253

18 539 39% 3 28 September 2011

2 Cisco IOS Software Multiple Features Crafted UDP Packet Vulnerability – 108558

17 561 37% 5 25 March 2009

3 Cisco VLAN Trunking Protocol Vulnerability – 108203 14 336 30% 7 6 November 2008

4 TCP State Manipulation Denial of Service Vulnerabilities in Multiple Cisco Products – IOS – 109444

14 052 29% 1 1 September 2009

5 Cisco IOS Software Command Authorization Bypass – null 13 675 29% 2 29 March 2012

6 Cisco IOS Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerabilities – 98605 14 584 28% 6 6 February 2009

7 Cisco IOS Software Multicast Source Discovery Protocol Vulnerability – null

11 632 24% 4 29 March 2012

8 Cisco IOS Software Tunnels Vulnerability - CSCsx70889 – 109482

11 157 23% 9 28 September 2009

9 Cisco IOS Software Multiple Features IP Sockets Vulnerability – 109333

11 052 23% 8 25 March 2009

10 Cisco IOS Software DHCP Version 6 Server Denial of Service Vulnerability – null

10 453 22% N/A 18 October 2012


201220112010 20142013

3.9%

58.8%

10.1%17.8%

90.8%

Americas

Asia Pacific

Europe


Total

3,990

58,889

10,12317,854

90,856


201220112010 20142013

3.9%

58.8%

10.1%17.8%

90.8%

Americas

Asia

Europe


Grand total

TotalMiddle East & Africa

EuropeAsia PacificAmericas

7,17

4

14,0

69

29,7

02

21,6

32 76,4

86

153,

905

137,

117

131,

831

228,

961

4.59

6

4,63

9

10,9

97

165,

871

227.

025

423,

565

28


2014

List of acronymsGSC Global Service Centre (Dimension Data)

ICT information and communication technology

MEA Middle East & Africa

PSIRT Product Security Incident Response Team

List of figuresFigure 1: Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices, global average

Figure 2: Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices by region

Figure 3: Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices by industry

Figure 4: Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage in the Network Barometer Report 2013

Figure 5: Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage in the Network Barometer Report 2014

Figure 6: Covered assets by lifecycle stage

Figure 7: Incidents by resolution category

Figure 8: Device failure rate by lifecycle stage

Figure 9: Mean-time-to-repair by lifecycle stage

Figure 10: Number of PSIRTs announced per year

Figure 11: Percentage of devices with PSIRTs by region

Figure 12: From wired to wireless – the architecture of current versus future networks

Figure 13: Dimension Data’s operational support maturity model

Figure 14: The technology refresh decision tree

Figure 15: Percentage of nodes (devices) by organisation size

Figure 16: Percentage of nodes (devices) by industry sector

Figure 17: Percentage of nodes (devices) by region

Figure 18: Number of assessments by country

Figure 19: Number of service incidents by region

Figure 20: Device type count by region

List of tablesTable 1: Technology lifecycle stages, associated risk levels, and required support environment maturity

Table 2: Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage, by incident

Table 3: Top 10 PSIRTs

Middle East & AfricaAlgeria · Angola

Botswana · Congo · Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo

Gabon · Ghana · Kenya Malawi · Mauritius · Morocco

Mozambique · Namibia · Nigeria Oman · Rwanda · Saudi Arabia

South Africa Tanzania · Uganda

United Arab Emirates · Zambia

AsiaChina · Hong Kong

India · Indonesia · Japan Korea · Malaysia

New Zealand · Philippines Singapore · Taiwan Thailand · Vietnam

AustraliaAustralian Capital Territory

New South Wales · Queensland South Australia · Victoria

Western Australia

EuropeAustria · Belgium

Czech Republic France · Germany · Hungary

Italy Ireland ·

· Luxembourg Netherlands Poland · Portugal

Slovakia · ·SpainTurkey · United Kingdom

Switzerland

AmericasBrazil · Canada · Chile Mexico · United States

For contact details in your region please visit www.dimensiondata.com/globalpresence

network barometer report 2014

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