Enterprises Bullish On 100 GbE, Cloud, And SDN

Companies are tackling surging bandwidth requirements by adding bigger network pipes and adopting newer technologies such as cloud and software-defined networking, according to a new study released today.

The ninth annual State of the Network report by Viavi Solutions (formerly Network Instruments) polled 740 CIOs, IT directors, and network engineers around the world. It found that 48% of respondents expect their company's bandwidth requirements to double by the end of next year. To meet the demand, enterprises are ramping up their shift to 100 Gigabit Ethernet, with one in four already implementing it and two out of three planning to adopt it by 2017.

Only 28% of those polled said they had no plans to deploy 100 GbE, way down from last year's 56% respondents with no 100 GbE plans.

The study also showed that an eagerness to garner cloud benefits like agility and cost savings are outweighing any concerns about cloud security and management: Next year, more than half of those surveyed plan to have the majority of their applications in the cloud.  

Viavi's report also found that SDN enterprise adoption has picked up. Two out of three respondents said they've deployed some facet of SDN. Thirty-five percent have implemented an SDN underlay while 27% are using an SDN overlay technology. Last year, slightly less than half of respondents said they had no plans at all for SDN.

The infographic below provides a snapshot of the report's findings.

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