18 July 2013
Network Barometer Report 2013
Analyst briefing
About the Network
Barometer Report
The Technology Lifecycle
Management (TLM)
Assessment
Research Sample
Technology Lifecycle Status
Security Vulnerabilities
IOS Version Management
Architectures – the changing
access network
© Copyright Dimension Data 3 18 July 2013
Reviews the status of networks globally
Aggregates data from the 233 Technology
Lifecycle Management (TLM) Assessments
conducted across the world in 2012 and
compares them to the data from the past 5
years.
Reviews networks’ readiness to support
business by reviewing network device:
• End-of-Life status
• Security vulnerabilities
• IOS Version Management
Investigates architectural networking trends
The Network Barometer Report looks at how ready
networks are to support business
Dimension Data
Network Barometer Report
About the Network
Barometer Report
The Technology Lifecycle
Management (TLM)
Assessment
Research Sample
Technology Lifecycle Status
Security Vulnerabilities
IOS Version Management
Architectures – the changing
access network
© Copyright Dimension Data 5 18 July 2013
time
The Technology Lifecycle Management (TLM) Assessment
discovers, catalogues and analyses network devices.
Execute business and
technical interviews
Collect asset list and
analyse to milestones
Compare against
maintenance asset
listing
Conduct
a TLM assessment
Discover
Execute TLM
assessment
centralised service to
automate discovery
and analysis
Create a prioritised
set of recommend-
ations and roadmap
Align recommend-
ations with long term
architecture
Analyse TLM
assessment output and
roadmap list of
prioritised projects
Construct
Present the
recommendations
based on risk, cost
and strategic factors
Official report and
onsite presentation of
findings
Present
recommendations and
roadmap
Recommend
About the Network
Barometer Report
The Technology Lifecycle
Management (TLM)
Assessment
Research Sample
Technology Lifecycle Status
Security Vulnerabilities
IOS Version Management
Architectures – the changing
access network
© Copyright Dimension Data 7 18 July 2013
The sample size is heavily weighted towards enterprise
and large sized organisations.
Sample distribution by organisation size
• Small – fewer than 100 users
• Medium – greater than 100, but fewer than 500 users
• Large – greater than 500, but fewer than 2500 users
• Enterprise – greater than 2500 users
© Copyright Dimension Data 8 18 July 2013
The sample is broadly representative of networks around
the world.
Sample distribution by geography
• Europe includes Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain,
Switzerland and the United Kingdom
• Americas include Canada, USA, Brazil, Mexico and Chile
• Middle East and Africa is primarily South Africa
• Asia includes China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines,
Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam
© Copyright Dimension Data 9 18 July 2013
Representation across industries is broadly reflective of the
adoption of IT and associated spend across vertical sectors.
Sample distribution by vertical industry sector
• 3 verticals make up almost half of the sample, therefore results will be particularly applicable to these
sectors.
• The remaining assessments were reasonably spread across the remaining vertical industries.
About the Network
Barometer Report
The Technology Lifecycle
Management (TLM)
Assessment
Research Sample
Technology Lifecycle Status
Security Vulnerabilities
IOS Version Management
Architectures – the changing
access network
© Copyright Dimension Data 11 18 July 2013
Technology Lifecycle Status
Vendors have standardised end-of-life
milestones through which they progress their
products
towards obsolescence.
Technology at EoS (end-of-sale) status
is regarded as an aging asset and will be
increasingly unsupportable and exposed to risk
as it progresses towards LDoS (last-day-of-
support).
By EoSWM (end-of-software-maintenance),
any new bugs found on the software will no
longer be patched opening the organisation up
to availability and mean time to repair (MTTR)
risks
Technology Lifecycles
© Copyright Dimension Data 12 18 July 2013
The percentage of client networks that have entered the
obsolescence cycle increased in 2012
Average % of devices beyond EoS by Region
• This year’s results show that the overall percentage of devices that have progressed to EoS and beyond
has increased steadily over the past 4 years.
© Copyright Dimension Data 13 18 July 2013
More even distribution of devices by lifecycle stage
Milestone distribution of devices by end of life cycle stage
• The percentage of devices that were only EoS has dropped from 70% in 2011 to 58% in 2012
• The percentage of devices that were ‘late’ in their product lifecycle increased, with EoE increasing from 8%
last year to 23% this year and LDoS increasing from 9% last year to 18% this year.
© Copyright Dimension Data 14 18 July 2013
Technology Lifecycle Status – summary findings
• The percentage of networking devices past
End of Sale increased for the third year in a
row to just under half of all devices
• This makes sense given the generally slow
macroeconomic conditions globally AND
the fact that the great majority of devices
are “only” end of sale, and therefore not as
risky to clients
• Over the next 18 to 36 months, the install
base will progress to later lifecycle stages
that present significantly more risk so it is
safe to assume that network refresh
projects will become more prevalent
Technology Lifecycles
About the Network
Barometer Report
The Technology Lifecycle
Management (TLM)
Assessment
Research Sample
Technology Lifecycle Status
Security Vulnerabilities
IOS Version Management
Architectures – the changing
access network
© Copyright Dimension Data 16 18 July 2013
Security Vulnerabilities
In the context of the Report,
vulnerabilities relate to existing known
defects in the software, for which the
manufacturer has a recommendation for
remediation.
Security Vulnerabilities
© Copyright Dimension Data 17 18 July 2013
The number of new vulnerabilities identified by Cisco
decreased in CY2012
Security vulnerabilities identified per year
• After peaking at 64 new PSIRTS in 2007, the announcements had tapered off in the 45 to 50 range through
2010 before spiking again to 60 in in 2011. In 2012 there were 50 announcements
© Copyright Dimension Data 18 18 July 2013
Of all of the devices analysed, 46% are carrying at least
one known security vulnerability.
Average % of devices with security vulnerabilities by organisation size
• 67% of all devices carry at least one known security vulnerability. This figure is marginally less than the
75% figure of the previous year.
• A single vulnerability was responsible for this high PSIRT penetration. PSIRT 10944, identified by Cisco in
September 2009, was found in 62% of all the devices analysed during 2012
© Copyright Dimension Data 19 18 July 2013
Security Vulnerabilities - In summary
• Network devices are slightly less
vulnerable this year – 67% of all devices
had at least one PSIRT
• For the third year running, the most
common vulnerability was PSIRT 109444,
in fact, it was linked to 91% of all devices
• After PSIRT 109444, the next 3 most
common PSIRTS were each in
approximately 20% of all devices AND
carried a higher risk rating than 109444
Security Vulnerabilities
About the Network
Barometer Report
The Technology Lifecycle
Management (TLM)
Assessment
Research Sample
Technology Lifecycle Status
Security Vulnerabilities
IOS Version Management
Architectures – the changing
access network
© Copyright Dimension Data 21 18 July 2013
Managing the number of unique versions of IOS can be
an operational challenge
Number of assessments categorised by count of versions of IOS
• Of all devices assessed, 46% occurred in networks with between 1 and 30 unique versions of IOS,
About the Network
Barometer Report
The Technology Lifecycle
Management (TLM)
Assessment
Research Sample
Technology Lifecycle Status
Security Vulnerabilities
IOS Version Management
Architectures – the changing
access network
© Copyright Dimension Data 23 18 July 2013
The Access Network – 80:20 moving to 20:80 !
© Copyright Dimension Data 24 18 July 2013
What does our discovery data say?
1/2 of all
access switches
support
PoE
1/3 of all
access switches
support
GE
11% of all
access switches
support
10GB uplinks
WLAN
bookings growing at
+30% pa
© Copyright Dimension Data 25 18 July 2013
Architectural Trends – summary findings
• It does not appear that architectural
requirements have yet to drive a significant
refresh in client core routing and switching
networks
• Organisations have started to upgrade the
networks in their data centres, but it is at an
early stage of the transition.
• This should accelerate in the next 18-24
months as the install base continues to age
and moved into riskier lifecycle stages
Architectural Based Refresh
© Copyright Dimension Data 26 18 July 2013
In summary
Visibility and vigilance – clients must
have a strategy to understand the network
threat landscape and how it can impact their
business.
1
Lifecycle and obsolescence – vendors will
continue to grow their product portfolio and
clients need to understand how this affects
them.
2
Architectures – trends like Cloud, Mobility
and Collaboration will impact the network
and an architectural approach is strongly
advised.
3
© Copyright Dimension Data 27 18 July 2013
18 July 2013
Thank you
Ky Ox – Group Marketing Manager, Network Integration
Raoul Tecala – Group Business Development Director, Network Integration
Questions?
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