According to Nemertes Research’s Advanced Communications Services benchmark, there is an increase in bandwidth demands at branch locations. The good news is the new study indicates that IT executives expect an 84 percent increase in bandwidth available in 2008, and a 99 percent increase in 2009. This shows an increase of 72 percent from 2007.

 

Robin Gareiss, Nemertes’ executive vice president and senior founding partner, said the continued demand by remote workers for high-performance collaborative and centralized business applications is the driving force behind these increases.

 

The adoption of managed services at branch offices has been increasing for the past three years. Currently, 63 percent of companies use some type of managed service at branches, in contrast to 46 percent in 2007, and 27 percent in 2006. According to Nemertes, participants tend to use traditional carriers for network-based services, such as router management, WAN management, and implementations. 

 

While resellers focus on ongoing management of applications, installation, and training,   systems integrators focus on design and implementation. Outsourcers center on network or application management.

 

The research also shows that video applications including desktop, room-based, and telepresence, top the list of reasons for bandwidth growth. New collaborative applications, multimedia Web-based applications, and IP telephony are also driving an increase in bandwidth demand. While management and monitoring tools are important for benchmarking costs, performance and utilization, robust, reliable, high-performance networks are crucial, especially in light of new applications and bandwidth requirements.

 

Nemertes Research says that optimization tools can assist with curtailing bandwidth spending and improve network monitoring. The research firm adds that 49 percent of benchmark participants use managed routers or other network gear at the branch, followed by 22 percent using IP telephony management.

 

Advanced Communications Services, the five-volume benchmark examines several key areas, including building a better WAN, wireless trends, branch-office recommendations, organizational best practices, and contract-negotiation analysis. Ninety-three IT professionals also looked at MPLS adoption in the benchmark; the percentage of companies using MPLS increased from 56 percent in 2007 to 73 percent in 2008.