WAN Bandwidth Demand Creates the Need for Channel Expertise

The rise of cloud computing and increased use of mobile computing devices have placed more pressure on the wide-area network than ever. A global survey of 200 IT professionals, conducted by Ashton, Metzler & Associates on behalf of WAN optimization software provider Talari Networks, finds that more than 40 percent plan to increase the size of their WAN budgets in 2014. A huge percentage of the increase in traffic is naturally moving across the Internet, but the use of enterprise applications is also driving up traffic across leased Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) lines. Surprisingly, 43.5 percent report they are coping with significant WAN issues at least once a quarter, and 65.7 percent feel they can get the support of senior managers to allocate funds to address those challenges. For channel companies, the WAN clearly represents an opportunity to deliver products and services that can improve application performance. This will be increasingly important as enterprise IT continues to be more distributed with each passing day, thanks to growth in cloud and mobile computing. Channel Insider examines key takeaways from the study.