Network Priorities: Availability Tops Security

Even with all the security breaches making headlines in recent months and the hang-wringing over security, availability remains the priority for many organizations when it comes to deploying applications.

F5 Networks polled IT pros from more than 300 customers of all sizes across a variety of industries and found that availability services was the top item they couldn't imagine deploying an application without. Forty percent of those surveyed said they were least willing to deploy an application without availability services like traffic management and DNS services. That beat out security, which was the next-highest priority at 33%.

"These responses seem to underscore the point that if an application isn't available, other services aren't as important to networking professionals," F5 said in its report on the survey findings, "The State of Application Delivery."

When asked what they'd give up if it made their network more secure, only 7% of those polled said they'd give up performance. Forty-seven percent said they would be willing to give up the ability to consolidate network applications and devices if doing so made their network more secure.

The F5 survey also asked IT pros about trends impacting application services, such as software-defined networking. Only 8% of survey respondents reported deploying SDN in production; 33% said they're currently evaluating SDN; while 16% are either in initial SDN implementation or piloting the technology.

A majority of those polled said they hope SDN will reduce operating expenses while 38% percent want to reduce capital expenses. Forty-four percent cited speed and improved time to market as a key driver for SDN.

Here's an infographic that illustrates some of the results of F5's study.

Figure 1: