Remote monitoring and automated management can slash the time to troubleshoot faulty networking devices by 75%, according to Dimension Data.
Consequently, it takes 32% less time to repair such devices than those not managed in this way, the vendor's latest Network Barometer Report shows.
According to the report, corporate networks have continued to age for the fifth consecutive year, making 53% of the over 70,000 technology devices that were analysed either ageing or obsolete – up by two percentage points since last year.
There’s also been a slight drop in the percentage of obsolete devices – down to 9% from last year’s 11% – while the percentage of ageing devices has increased by four points. The percentage of the current devices analyzed is at its lowest in three years.
The research looked at corporate networks in organizations of all sizes and all industry sectors across 28 countries.
“During the seven-year history of the Network Barometer Report, the average tolerance level for organization’s obsolete devices in their networks has been around 10%,” said Andre van Schalkwyk, consulting practice manager for Dimension Data’s networking business unit. “Rarely do organizations allow this to increase beyond 11% before they refresh the relevant devices.”
The report also shows that there’s been a slight improvement in the security status of networks this year: the percentage of devices with at least one vulnerability is down to 60% from 74% last year.
This change is attributable to the trend seen in organizations refreshing obsolete devices which have more identified vulnerabilities because of their age. Replacing them would lead to fewer vulnerabilities in the network overall.
Also, despite the general tendency to sweat assets, organizations are slowly expanding the wireless capabilities of their networks. However, 74% of the wireless access points are still older models that don’t support a solid mobility strategy.
In addition, the majority of devices are not IPv6-capable yet, many of which require a simple software upgrade to be so. Combined, these factors point to organizations not giving the impact of enterprise mobility, collaboration, and the Internet of Things on the network due strategic consideration yet.