The LAN Sprawl survey asked respondents to consider how their LAN had grown over the last two years and about anticipated growth in the coming two years. A key finding is that LANs have grown at fairly consistent rates across a wide range of axes and are expected to maintain this multi-dimensional growth over the next two years, as shown in the attached graphic and on the resource page.
Support for the virtualized workforce--the dynamic mix of permanent employees and ad-hoc workers including contractors, partners, suppliers and customers--is among the biggest causes of this widespread growth. In addition, the Loudhouse research found that LAN sprawl results from compounding effects, such as increased roles per user, rather than simply linear growth in user or application count.
"With an increasingly mobile workforce consisting of reporters and freelance writers from all across the country, the need for visibility and control over their access to the corporate network has become a business-critical issue for us," said Vikas Khorana, IT Director at the Stevens Media Group. "ConSentry has enabled us to keep pace with this growth by providing us the deeper-level traffic intelligence and awareness down to the identity, application, and device. As a result, we are able to operate more efficiently and securely while tapping into the benefits of a dynamic workforce."
Dynamic Work Environments Biggest Drivers of Change
When considering the drivers for change to user access on their LANs, the answers from IT decision makers reflect the strategic need for enabling dynamic work environments, especially in the US. Among the top drivers cited by US respondents are to support cross-functional internal groups (62 percent), work with outsourced suppliers or customers (56 percent), enable auditors or short-term contractors to access the LAN (53 percent), and support cross-functional groups spanning internal and external users (48 percent).
