Security is the Top Issue for Network Managers According to New 451 Research Study

NEW YORK, Oct. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- TheInfoPro, a service of 451 Research, released its latest network technology study, indicating a strong budget for network projects in 2013 and 2014. Security returns to the top of the list of network manager 'pain points,' with aging hardware dropping from first place in the previous Wave study to fifth place in 2013.

Conducted earlier in 2013, TheInfoPro study identifies key initiatives of senior networking managers, including market factors and major players. This annual study is based on extensive live interviews with technology professionals and primary decision-makers at large and midsize enterprises in North America and Europe.

Daniel Kennedy, Research Director and report author, noted several other key trends from the TheInfoPro Network Study:

• Network budgets maintain a successful multi-year run of increases, with 2013 seeing 40% of network managers increasing their overall spending.
• The top networking project, taking over from upgrades to the network core in 2012, is the continued rollout and expansion of wireless networking within the enterprise.
• Unified Communications sits atop the voice and video category, as well as much of the study's technologies as a whole, ranking fourth in the overall heat index.
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet at the network core is quickly becoming the standard, with 75% of enterprises reportedly having rolled it out. Campus-wide rollouts are not far behind, with 64% reporting having it in place and another 6% rolling it out in the short term.

"Network budgets for the majority of network managers continued to climb in 2013, with 40% noting a spending increase over what was a positive 2012," said Daniel Kennedy, TheInfoPro's Research Director for Information Security & Networking, "The previous study saw core upgrades as the top project – this year, wireless took the top spot followed by switch upgrades, indicating that the general network refresh is expanding into network campuses."

451 Research Webinar to Discuss Report Findings

451 Research will host a webinar on October 29^th:

Webinar Details:

• Title: The State of Networking Technology in 2013
• Date/Time: October 29 at 2pm ET
• Presenter: Daniel Kennedy, Research Director, Information Security & Networking
• Registration: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/594889673

To learn more about the study and the TheInfoPro Networking research series, please visit: https://451research.com/tip-networking-overview.

About TheInfoPro Networking Study
TheInfoPro Network Technology Study takes an in-depth look at key trends across the industry, and tracks the performance of individual vendors.  This 10^th iteration of the study takes an in-depth look at key trends across the networking industry, as well as the performance of individual vendors. The study is completed annually, and is based on hour-long interviews with technology professionals and primary decision-makers at large and midsize enterprises primarily in North America. The interview results are collected in comprehensive research reports that provide continuous business intelligence within key areas, such as technological roadmaps, spending plans and vendor performance. A sampling of vendors covered in the Vendor Performance and Technology Roadmap components of the study include: Cisco, Check Point, HP, Juniper Networks, Aruba Networks, Extreme Networks, Arista, Huawei, F5 Networks, Riverbed, Polycom, Avaya, Palo Alto Networks, Dell, Microsoft and SolarWinds.

About 451 Research
451 Research, a division of The 451 Group, is focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. The company's analysts provide critical and timely insight into the competitive dynamics of innovation in emerging technology segments. Business value is delivered via daily concise and insightful published research, periodic deeper-dive reports, data tools, market-sizing research, analyst advisory, and conferences and events, including the upcoming HCTS-North America. Clients of the company – at vendor, investor, service-provider and end-user organizations – rely on 451 Research's insight to support both strategic and tactical decision-making. 451 Research is headquartered in New York, with offices in key locations, including San Francisco, Washington DC, London, Boston, Seattle and Denver.

SOURCE 451 Research