This year's Network Barometer Report found that: 1) Over half (51%) of network devices across various regions and industries are now ageing or obsolete, the highest percentage in six years, indicating networks are getting older. 2) The percentage of ageing devices increased the most in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, which can be partly explained by lingering effects of recent economic slowdowns. 3) While networks are generally getting older, some technology refresh is occurring to support trends like enterprise mobility, with wireless access ports increasingly supporting power-over-Ethernet, gigabit speeds, and 10-gigabit uplinks.

1. Network
Barometer
Report
2014
A gauge of global networks’ readiness to accelerate business

2. About
Dimension Data
Founded in 1983, Dimension Data plc is a global ICT services and solutions
provider that uses its technology expertise, global service delivery capability, and
entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate the business ambitions of its clients. Dimension
Data is a member of the NTT Group. It has designed, built and manage over 9,000
networks worldwide to enable more than 13 million users to connect to their
organisations’ networks. Dimension Data has delivered over 1,400 Technology
Lifecycle Management Assessments to date.
The Network Barometer Report can be downloaded at:
www.dimensiondata.com/networkbarometer
Copyright notice and disclaimer
© Dimension Data 2009–2014
Copyright and rights in databases subsist in this work. Any unauthorised copying, reproduction or other dealing in this work, or any part
thereof, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner is an act of copyright infringement. Copying of certain portions of this
work, such as tables, graphs, and certain extracts is permissible subject to the condition that (1) such portions do not constitute a substantial
reproduction of the work (or a section) as a whole, and (2) the following notice accompanies all such portions: ‘Dimension Data Network
Barometer Report 2014, © Dimension Data 2009–2014’. Any unauthorised copying, communication to the public, reproduction, or other
dealings in this work, or any part thereof, renders the person who is responsible for such acts liable for civil law copyright infringement and,
under certain circumstances, liable to criminal prosecution. All rights of the copyright owner are reserved.
The data and information contained in the Network Barometer Report are for information purposes only. While the commentary and
hypotheses in this Report are based on rigorous data analysis and market experience, the content also contains opinion. Furthermore, while
reasonable steps are taken to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the data and information provided, Dimension Data accepts no liability
or responsibility whatsoever if such data or information is incorrect or inaccurate, for whatsoever reason. Dimension Data does not accept
liability for any claims, loss or damages of any nature, arising as a result of the reliance on, or use of, such data or information by any
individual or organisation.

3. network barometer
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2014
Table
of contents
Executive summary 2
Results 5
Question 1: Technology lifecycle – how old are today’s networks? 5
This year’s results 6
How we interpret the results 9
Summary 11
Question 2: Service incidents – do older networks cause more
failures and require increased support? 12
This year’s results 13
How we interpret the results 17
Summary 18
Question 3: Technology type – are today’s networks prepared
for architectural trends such as cloud and enterprise mobility? 19
This year’s results 21
How we interpret the results 21
Summary 22
Recommendations 23
Appendix A – sample distribution 25
Appendix B – services data 30

4. network barometer
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About the
Network Barometer Report 2014
1 2 3
a larger
sample size
288
technology
assessments
spread across regions
74,000
devices
See Appendix A for detailed breakdown.
more evenly
and industries
5
regions
32
countries
11
industries
Technology data gathered from:
Support services data gathered from:
4 Global Service Centres in
new support
services data
Boston Frankfurt Bangalore Johannesburg
91,000
service
incidents
1

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Proof that network success depends
as much (and perhaps more)
on operational support capabilities
as on technology.
In this year’s Network Barometer Report,
we’ve incorporated data gathered from
Dimension Data’s Global Service Centres (GSCs).
This information relates to support service
requests – or ‘incidents’ – logged against client
devices under Dimension Data’s management.
When combined with the network discovery
data gathered from our Technology Lifecycle
Management Assessments, it provides a
multidimensional view of networks today.
In interpreting the results, Dimension Data has brought its
strategic focus on ICT services and extensive experience in
maintaining, supporting, managing, and outsourcing its clients’
networks to bear on the Report’s goal: to gauge the readiness
of today’s networks to accelerate business. Our findings may be
viewed by some as controversial.
Our overall conclusion:
The great majority of service incidents are not related to
network devices. In addition, maintenance requirements for
these devices vary depending on their lifecycle stage. The most
important requirement for the network to successfully
support business is therefore a mature set of operational
tools and processes.
We’ve reached this conclusion by asking ourselves three
searching questions. These were answered by analyses and
interpretation of the data sets, which are captured in more
detail in the rest of this Report.

6. network barometer
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Q1:
In terms of technology lifecycle, how old are
today’s networks?
A1:
Organisations continue to delay refreshing their networks, as the percentage of
ageing and obsolete devices has increased to its highest level in six years:
• More than half of all devices (51%) are now ageing or obsolete.
• Of all devices, 27% are now ‘later’ in their product lifecycle, when the vendor begins to reduce support for the device.
Over the past few years, as the percentage of ageing and obsolete devices steadily increased, the conventional
assumption was that a technical refresh cycle was imminent. However, our data shows that organisations are clearly
willing to sweat their network assets for longer than expected. Some of the drivers behind this behaviour include:
• a sustained focus on cost savings following the global economic crisis, particularly reduced capex
budgets, which may have disrupted the usual three- to five-year refresh patterns
• the growing availability and uptake of as-a-service ICT consumption models which reduce the need for
organisations to invest in their own IT infrastructure
• the introduction of programmable, software-defined networks which may be causing organisations to
‘wait and see’ before selecting and implementing new technology – a factor we expect will become more
influential in the next 18 to 36 months (also see About software-defined networking.)
Q2:
Do older networks cause more failures and network
downtime, and require increased support?
A2:
A resounding ‘no’.
• Our results show that older devices fail less frequently and take less time to repair.
• However, older networks do have special support requirements, particularly sparing and device swap-out
strategies. Without these, failures caused by older devices would take longer to resolve.
• The great majority of service incidents (84%) aren’t device-related, but are caused by human error, environment
problems, or telecom failure, all of which fall outside the remit of a conventional support contract.
Q3:
A3:
For example, enterprise mobility requires pervasive wireless connectivity which, in turn, requires at least three basic
features in the access network: power-over-Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet on the client side, and 10-gigabit uplinks.
This year, we found that:
• 51% of all ports support power-over-Ethernet, roughly the same as in 2013.
• 45% of access switch ports support gigabit Ethernet, up from 33% in 2013.
• 23% of access switches support 10-gigabit uplinks, up from 11% in 2013.
We see this slight improvement as a reaction to the increased number of mobile devices used in the workplace,
rather than the result of a planned and proactive strategy to prepare for enterprise mobility and cloud.
If organisations are sweating their network assets, how well prepared
are their networks for architectural trends such as enterprise mobility?
Despite the general tendency to sweat assets, some technology refresh
is occurring, primarily to address current architectural trends.
3

7. 4
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What we recommend
We know that it’s good to sweat network assets some of the
time, the question is: when? Given the financial and operational
benefits of older devices, such as lower failure rates and shorter
time to repair, organisations can choose to sweat their assets
for as long as possible, subject to organisational standards and
compliance policies. However, they must also have a mature
set of operational tools and processes in place, including sparing
strategies for obsolete equipment, to support greater
network availability as vendor support diminishes during
later lifecycle stages.
The benefits of sweating assets notwithstanding, organisations
must make sure that their networks can accommodate
important architectural trends such as enterprise mobility
and cloud computing, as these advancements will provide
significant competitive advantage. However, upgrading
networks to support these developments again puts pressure on
internal IT support, as newer devices are more susceptible
to service incidents.
The single most important thing
organisations can do to ensure
their networks are able to
support business is to invest in
their operational support tools
and processes.
For more advice on how to implement this Report’s findings
in your organisation, see our Recommendations.
About the Network
Barometer Report
The Network Barometer Report 2014 presents
the aggregate data gathered from Dimension
Data’s Technology Lifecycle Management
Assessments conducted for clients around the
world in 2013. It also contains data relating to
service incidents, logged at our Global Service
Centres, for client networks that we support.
Dimension Data compiles, analyses, compares,
and interprets the data in order to gauge
the readiness of today’s networks to
accelerate business.

8. network barometer
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Results
Question 1:
Technology lifecycle – how old are today’s networks?
About
technology lifecycles
In order to establish the age and viability of
technology assets, most vendors have standardised
milestones through which they progress their
products towards obsolescence. For example, Cisco
uses six technology lifecycle milestones. These run
from future-end-of-sale, the announcement of the
lifecycle milestone dates, to last-day-of-support, the
date after which Cisco’s Technical Assistance Center
will no longer support the product. Common to all
vendors are end-of-sale and end-of-support.
To normalise the data for this report, we’ve defined
three lifecycle categories:
• Current
These devices are presently shipping and have full
access to vendor support services.
• Ageing
Vendors have announced that these devices
are past end-of-sale. They’ve not yet passed
end-of-support, but vendor support is
increasingly limited.
• Obsolete
These devices are past end-of-support.
Table 1 lists these three categories, and the
maintenance and support requirements typical
of each.
About the Technology Lifecycle
Management Assessment
This ICT assessment service from Dimension Data
discovers installed assets on the network, identifies
their lifecycle statuses, determines maintenance
coverage, and flags potential security vulnerabilities.
The Assessment assists organisations to align their IT
infrastructure with best practices for configuration,
security, and patch management, thereby ensuring
that they’re not exposing themselves to unnecessary
risk. The technology lifecycle data used in this Report
comes from these automated Assessments, not from
a survey. Click here for more information.
5

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Table 1:
Technology lifecycle stages, associated risk levels, and required support environment maturity
Lifecycle
Time
status
(years)
Risks Required support environment
maturity
Current 0-3 • settling period during which product bugs and
hardware stability issues are identified
• organisations’ support teams learn new features
of the device
• controlled introduction into the environment,
requiring mature release and deployment
processes
• new and/or advanced technology requires
updated, technology-specific training
• mature change management processes required
to handle updates and patches, as required
Ageing 3-5 • increased support costs with some vendors
• decreasing support later in this stage
(for example, no more software bug fixes)
• all business-as-usual processes apply, including
capacity and change management
• some local sparing might be required for later-stage
equipment
Obsolete 5+ • no, or limited, access to spares
• no, or limited, vendor support for
complex issues
• logistics and change management relating to
local spares warehousing
Figure 1:
Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices, global average
For the fourth consecutive year, the
devices in today’s networks have
aged in terms of their lifecycle
status. This year, more than half of
all devices were ageing or obsolete,
which means that networks are
the oldest they’ve been since
the first Network Barometer
Report was published in 2009.
Overall
35%
38%
45%
48%
51%
43%
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
This year’s results

10. 7
37%22%
37%
network barometer
report
2014
35%34%
Americas Asia Australia Europe Middle East & Africa Overall
Figure 2:
Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices by region
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
35%
30%
35%
40%
38%
59%
38%
48%
Americas Asia Pacific Australia Europe Middle East & Africa Average
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
37%38%
22%
37%
44%
39%40%
44%44%
54%
35%34%
53%
51%
35%
56%
41%
52%
30%
38%
55%
53%
35%
45%
51%
The Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe showed notable
increases in the percentage of ageing and obsolete devices.
While Australia, and Middle East & Africa (MEA), appear to
have improved marginally from last year, the overall trend in
those two regions is clearly upwards when viewed over
more than one year.
Much of the increase can be explained by macroeconomics.
Network spend is often linked to regional economic conditions,
slowing during sluggish times and accelerating during times
of growth. Last year, Australia and MEA showed significantly
higher percentages of ageing and obsolete devices – over 50%
– whereas the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific were closer to
40%. This coincided with the economic slowdown in the former
two regions, in contrast to the slow, but stable, economic
growth in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
This year, the economic slump in Asia Pacific inflated the
region’s percentage of ageing devices. Steady economic
growth continued in the Americas, which had a higher
percentage of ageing devices than in 2013, but not quite
as high as in other regions.
Much of the increase can be
explained by macroeconomics.
Network spend is often linked to
regional economic conditions,
slowing during sluggish times
and accelerating during times
of growth.

11. 8
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Figure 3:
Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices by industry
Resources – utilities
and hospitality
and energy
Media – entertainment
and education
54%
2011 2012 2013 2014
48%
55%
60%
41%
Eight out of the 11 industry sectors had roughly the same or
slightly higher percentages of ageing and obsolete devices
compared with last year. Three showed large increases: financial
services (+13%); government, health care, and education
(+11%); and service providers and telecommunications (+33%).
The upwards trend in these sectors supports our view that the
global financial crisis of recent years still has a lingering effect
today. This tendency to sweat network assets for longer is
perhaps simply due to a lack of funds for technology refreshes
that aren’t seen as critical.
The more substantial ageing of assets we’ve noticed in the
service providers and telecommunications sectors could be
due to various factors. Companies in these industries are
typically massive organisations with significant operational
staff complements and relatively mature support processes for
managing their networking infrastructures. They can therefore
afford to take on the greater risk of ageing networks.
Average
Travel and
transportation
Technology
Service providers and
telecommunications
Service providers may also be sweating the assets they’ve
deployed on clients’ premises. In many cases, this equipment
serves primarily as a point of demarcation, or as ‘network
termination units’, for the network connectivity provided by
the service provider. So the service provider may not require
the advanced features of newer devices, which would be the
primary motivation for refreshing or upgrading equipment.
36%
38%
Government – health care
33%
34%
22%
Financial services
Consumer goods
35%
35%
Business services
and retail
23%
Automotive and
manufacturing
Construction and
50%
40%
real estate
34%
40%
49%
32%
28%
54%
56%
48%
50%
46%
48%
34%
51%
44%
30%
48%
44%
38%
22%
40%
44%
28%
47%
29%
37%
18%
47%
37%
41%
61%
35%
38%
45%
48%

12. 9
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Figure 4:
Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage in the
Network Barometer Report 2013
Figure 5:
Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage in the
Network Barometer Report 2014
8%
52%
40%
Current
Ageing
Obsolete
11%
49%
40%
Current
Ageing
Obsolete
Figures 4 and 5 compare the percentage of discovered devices by lifecycle category over the last year. Note that the 3% decrease in
the percentage of current devices is matched by a 3% increase in the percentage of obsolete devices. Moreover, breaking down the
percentage of ageing devices into their subcategories shows that the percentage of devices in the ‘late’ lifecycle stages, when the
vendor begins reducing support (that is, end-of-engineering, end-of-software-maintenance, end-of-contract-renewal, and last-day-of-
sale), has jumped from 20% last year to 27% this year.
How we interpret the results
Today’s networks are getting ‘older’
In general, we attribute this to organisations adopting a
strategy of ‘fixing’ only what’s ‘broken’. When a device reaches
the later lifecycle stages, the organisation has typically already
decided to sweat that asset for as long as possible. That may
be because the older device is situated in an area of the
network that isn’t critical: should the device fail, the impact
of a network outage is low. The few assets that were refreshed
last year were probably in network areas where the need for
advanced features was becoming pressing, or where the risk of
extended downtime was too high.
Our view is that this strategy is sound ... but comes with certain
caveats (see overleaf).
As networks have continued to age over the past several
years, a common expectation was that a technology refresh
was imminent – organisations wouldn’t risk allowing their
networks to age indefinitely. Thus far, however, the expected
refresh hasn’t materialised. Organisations have been far more
economical in their approach, and more willing to risk getting
by with ageing equipment for the sake of ‘running lean’,
sometimes avoiding capex at all costs.
However, a key question remains: If organisations continue to
sweat their assets, do they increase the risk of network failures
and downtime?
To shed light on this, the Network Barometer Report 2014
incorporates support services data gleaned from four of
Dimension Data’s GSCs ... and the results have been revealing.

13. 10
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Top tips to sweat
your assets safely
Have an accurate inventory of your entire
network estate.
Understand the function of each device and
how critical it is to the network’s uptime.
Know at which stage in their lifecycles these
devices are.
Have the appropriate operational support
strategy in place to resolve any performance
issues or outages that may occur, as vendor
support will be either limited or unavailable
during later lifecycle stages.
Ensure that the device’s capabilities are not
constraining architectural changes, which have
driven upgrades in other areas of the network.
Talk to us about how a Technology Lifecycle
Management Assessment can give you a clear
view of your networking estate, while an
IT Support Assessment can help you ensure that
your support systems and processes are the right
fit for your organisation.

14. network barometer
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11
How old are
today’s networks?
oldest
they’ve been in
6 years
more than
half of all devices
are ageing
or obsolete
11%
are obsolete
we recommend
sweating your assets is okay
but
know your devices
and their lifecycle stages
understand potential network impacts
if devices fail

15. network barometer
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2014
Question 2: Service incidents – do older networks cause
more failures and require increased support?
This year, we analysed over 91,000 service incidents – or
‘trouble tickets’ – handled by Dimension Data’s GSCs. We
wanted to understand the types of issues we’ve encountered
while maintaining our clients’ networks, and how these issues
relate to the device lifecycle data. (Please refer to Appendix A
for detailed information and commentary on the sample size
of our services data.)
About
Dimension Data’s GSCs
Dimension Data’s GSCs are organisational hubs
situated at eight central locations in five regions
around the world:
Americas: Boston, US; and Santiago, Chile
Asia Pacific: Auckland, New Zealand; Bangalore,
India; and Singapore
Australia: Melbourne, Australia
Europe: Frankfurt, Germany
Middle East & Africa: Johannesburg, South Africa
network barometer
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2014
12
This year, we analysed
over 91,000 service incidents –
or ‘trouble tickets’ – handled by
Dimension Data’s GSCs.
At these Centres, Dimension Data’s service delivery and
technical support experts receive calls from clients and
resolve technical service tickets, requests, and problems in
13 local languages (depending on the GSC’s location).
The GSCs receive over a million such requests from
10,000 clients every year – more than 2,500 incidents
each day.

16. 13
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This year’s results
Figure 6:
Covered assets by lifecycle stage
9%
46%
45%
Current
Ageing
Obsolete
The lifecycle stage distribution of the devices that Dimension
Data supports mirrors the lifecycle distribution of our assessment
discovery data. (In the assessment discovery data, 49% of
devices were current, 40% were ageing, and 11% were
obsolete – see Figure 5.)
Figure 7:
Incidents by resolution category
26%
22%
4% 2%2%
15%
9%
14%
6%
Other human errors
Telco failure
Environment
Hardware failure
Asset capacity
Configuration error
Scheduled outage
Bandwidth
Software bug
Figure 7 shows the breakdown of incidents by resolution
category. One of the most significant findings is that the
largest cause of incidents is human error: nearly one-third of
all incidents (6% configuration errors, plus 26% other human
errors) are, therefore, potentially avoidable.
Telecom, or wide area network (WAN), failures are the next most
frequent root cause, at 22%. This is to be expected, considering
the complexity of maintaining and managing the many different
components of a geographically dispersed telecom network.
Third on the list of the most frequent causes of service incidents
are physical environment problems such as loss of power,
airconditioning failures, and temperature control problems.
These account for 15% of all incidents.
Finally, in fourth position, are device-related problems, with
14% of all incidents attributed to hardware. Including the
2% of incidents attributed to software bugs, we see that only
16% of all service incidents fall under the remit of the device
maintenance providers.
This means that a massive 84% of the network’s operational
burden falls outside typical maintenance contracts and
therefore must be addressed by the organisation’s internal
support processes.
In the assessment discovery data,
49% of devices were current,
40% were ageing, and 11%
were obsolete.

17. 14
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Table 2:
Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage by incident
Lifecycle stage Asset % Incident %
Current 46% 40%
Ageing 45% 53%
Obsolete 9% 7%
As expected, there’s a correlation between incidents raised
and the lifecycle stage of devices. For example, 46% of all
devices under management were current, and caused 40% of
all incidents. For the purposes of this analysis, Dimension Data
filtered the data to show only hardware failures and software
problems. All other incidents are caused by factors that can’t be
regarded as device failures.
Figure 8:
Device failure rate by lifecycle stage
4.14%
Current
Ageing
Manufacturers generally target a hardware failure rate of 4%
per annum. The 2014 data shows that the failure rate of the
devices in Dimension Data’s maintenance base is indeed close to
this level.
One might expect the failure rate of obsolete devices to be
higher than current or ageing devices, as obsolete devices are
older and maintenance options are limited. However, this year’s
analysis shows that the failure rate of obsolete devices is about a
percentage point lower than either current or ageing devices.
Figure 9:
Mean-time-to-repair by lifecycle stage
4.2%
3.3% 3.4%
2.7%
Current
Ageing
Obsolete
Average
If obsolete devices are less likely to fail than current or ageing
devices, how long would they take to repair should they fail?
One might expect that older devices that fail would cause longer
downtime than current or ageing devices. But, again, the results
prove otherwise.
Figure 9 shows that the average mean-time-to-repair for all
devices is 3.4 hours. Current devices take about 48 minutes
longer to repair than the average. Ageing devices take the
shortest time to repair, about 42 minutes shorter than average.
Obsolete devices take slightly longer to repair than ageing
devices, at 3.3 hours, substantially less time than it takes to
repair current devices.
In summary, obsolete devices fail less often than current devices.
And, when they do fail, problems are quicker to resolve: about
an hour less than for current devices.
In summary, obsolete devices
fail less often than current
devices. And, when they do fail,
problems are quicker to resolve:
about an hour less than for
current devices.
3.78%
2.73%
Obsolete

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Cyberattack! How safe is your
network?
The Heartbleed security vulnerability made
headlines around the world in 2014. Terms
such as ‘hacktivism’, ‘cybercrime’, even
‘cyberwar’ were used widely, showing that
network security is a serious concern for all
organisations. This poses the question: exactly
how vulnerable is your network compared with
others in your industry or region, and what
should you do about it?
Count your PSIRTs
One indication of a network’s vulnerability is the number,
and degree of criticality, of device software vulnerabilities
it contains. As vulnerabilities become known, Cisco
publishes what are called PSIRTs. PSIRT stands for Product
Security Incident Response Team, but within the context
of network security, the term refers to a software bug
or vulnerability that’s been identified after extensive lab
testing and research.
Each PSIRT has a unique number and denotes a particular
operating system weakness that may also pose a security
risk. Hackers may discover and exploit such vulnerabilities
in a network, which can lead to a denial of service, or
allow the hacker to gain access to sensitive data. The
more PSIRTs identified on a device or in a network, the
higher the risk of a security breach due to the increased
‘attack surface’ available to exploit.
Growing concerns
Measured by the increasing number of PSIRTs published
by Cisco over the last few years, it’s concerning that the
general trend is towards more vulnerable networks.
Adding to the concern is that, according to our data,
networks aren’t improving either. Over the last four years,
the percentage of devices with at least one vulnerability
has remained relatively stable overall.
Figure 10:
Number of PSIRTs announced per year
network barometer
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2014
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
PSIRTs
Trend

19. 16
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Figure 11:
Percentage of devices with PSIRTs by region
65%
76%
73% 72%
69%
73%75%
Americas Asia Pacific Australia Europe Middle East & Africa Average
Regionally, the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe saw
relatively large increases in PSIRT percentages from last
year, while Australia and MEA remained fairly stable.
The larger percentages aren’t surprising, given that
organisations are sweating their assets. There’s a strong
correlation between the number of ageing devices and
the percentage of devices with vulnerabilities. Also, as
more services are added to the network, more software
is required to effectively operate the infrastructure.
This increases the overall operational risk of owning an
unmaintained network.
Types of security vulnerabilities
The risk posed to your network by a particular
vulnerability depends on what type of PSIRT it is and
where in the network the devices which have that
vulnerability are located. Also, the longer a vulnerability
has been known, the higher the risk, as it gives attackers
more time to learn how to exploit it. See Table 3 in
Appendix B for more information about the 10 most
prevalent PSIRTs in 2014.
Be still my bleeding heart
The Heartbleed vulnerability announced this year was,
and still is, a very serious threat if not remedied. As an
open-source software bug, it puts a range of operating
systems and vendor appliances at risk, and can allow
attackers to unravel security measures such as user names
and passwords.
Luckily, the response from top websites was swift and
many operators have already patched at least their
Internet-facing systems. While the external Web presence
is the most important to safeguard, it will most likely
take internal network environments some time to protect
themselves fully against Heartbleed. For more information
on Heartbleed and our recommended remediation plan,
email queries@dimensiondata.com.
How to protect yourself
While it’s not possible to know about every security
threat in advance, it’s best to build the relevant security
capabilities in your organisation to minimise exposure to
vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed.
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
46%
85%
55%
67%
52%
82%
66%
85%
33%
80% 80%
27%
61%
50%
60% 59%
84%
89%
78%79%
38%
67%
74%

20. 17
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Key security capabilities
to consider:
• visibility and discovery tools – both network- and
application-based
• incident response plans and automated workflow
• vulnerability and remediation management
• risk profiling appropriate to business context
• network-, application-, and data-centric protection
controls that can be rapidly applied when risks are
discovered and assessed
How we interpret the results
In the technology lifecycle section, we saw that organisations
are choosing to sweat their assets. Networking devices have
continued to get older for the fourth year in a row. The question
we asked was: are organisations exposing themselves to
increased network failures and downtime, since more than half
of their network devices are ageing, with more than a quarter of
those at an older lifecycle stage when vendor support is limited?
To answer this question, we analysed more than 91,000
service incidents handled by our GSCs, covering more than
400,000 devices under our management. Our findings turned
conventional wisdom on its head:
• Obsolete devices were 25% less likely to fail than devices that
were current.
• It took, on average, one hour less to resolve issues on
obsolete devices than on current devices.
These findings are supported by Dimension Data’s practical
experience in supporting networks of all ages. Current devices
are subject to a ‘burn-in’ period in which software bugs
and operating system problems are still prevalent. Generally
speaking, a new device is most likely to fail during the first 90 to
180 days after installation. Any issues related to the first version
of a device or operating system, or arising from manufacturing
or shipping the device to site, will manifest shortly after
installation. Once a device is past this ‘burn-in’ period, fewer
incidents occur.
Later, when the device is obsolete, there’s usually only one
remediation plan if it fails: to immediately swap it with a spare.
This reduces mean-time-to-repair, as it’s generally quicker to
replace a device than diagnose and troubleshoot the particular
software bug or hardware problem. This, however, requires a
mature sparing strategy on the part of the support
organisation, such as those offered by Dimension Data.
Without such programmes, obsolete devices would take
much longer to repair.
Our conclusion is that a refreshed network places a heavier
burden on an organisation’s support services infrastructure
than an ageing network does. Based on the rate of technology
failures and resolution time, and the added benefit of reduced
capex, the decision to sweat network assets is sound.
However, it’s crucial to thoroughly consider the root causes
of service incidents. Our 2014 data indicates that only 16%
of all incidents were related to device failure. This leaves a
massive 84% of service incidents caused by other factors such
as telecom failures or environment issues. These statistics are
worrying because a large proportion of incidents fall outside of
a support provider’s traditional remit, and are therefore up to
the organisation itself to resolve.
The implication is that an organisation needs mature processes
for problem, change, and configuration management, as well as
the right tools and people, to handle incidents effectively.
network barometer
report
Dimension Data recommends that it’s best to standardise
on hardware and software as much as possible, as this
reduces both risk and operational complexity in the
long run. The more software and hardware versions
used on the network, the higher the risk and the harder
it becomes to maintain. Operational efficiency is also
hampered due to feature disparity.
Patches should not be applied only for the sake of
patching. Rather, patch devices based on a calculated
risk. For example, if a device is vulnerable, but it doesn’t
support critical systems or interconnect with an important
part of the network, the priority to patch might be lower
than for a device that does.

21. 18
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2014
Do older networks cause more failures
and require increased support?
No, failure rates and mean-time-to-repair
(MTTR) are lower for obsolete equipment.
16%
so
current
4.2 hrs
obsolete
3.3 hrs
overall
3.4 hrs
ageing
2.7 hrs
we recommend
Conduct a thorough audit
to understand the maturity and suitablity of
your support systems and processes.
Partner with a support services expert
to fill any support gaps you may have.
only
of incidents =
device
failures
84%
of incidents =
outside
your
maintenance
supplier’s remit
current
3.78%
ageing
4.14%
obsolete
2.95%
Average MTTR by lifecycle status
Failure rate by lifecycle status

22. 19
network barometer
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2014
Question 3: Technology type – are today’s networks
prepared for architectural trends such as cloud and
enterprise mobility?
Our observations about ageing networks and operational
support maturity led us to ask: are organisations still investing in
their networks to address architectural trends such as cloud and
enterprise mobility? Or are they more inclined to wait and see
what newer trends, such as software-defined networking, will
bring before investing in any new technology?
About
software-defined networking
Software-defined networking makes networks more
intelligent, programmable, and automated. This is
brought about by changes at the networking device level.
The intelligent, programmable part of each device – the
software that determines how the device controls and
directs data – is split from the packet-forwarding engine,
and centralised. Software-defined networks therefore use
hardware networking devices that are configured by a
central, software-based controller.
Hence the term ‘software-defined’: the network is no
longer configured by manually adjusting individual
devices, but controlled by software.
Click here to read more about Dimension Data’s Software-defined
Networking Development Model, which can help
you take the first step in preparing your network for the
future of networking.
In last year’s Report, we argued that enterprise mobility
would necessitate an evolution in the access switching
network architecture, from largely wired to mostly wireless
infrastructures. In an environment where the great majority
of end users connect to the network wirelessly, the traditional
campus access-switching network must evolve. In the old
model, 80% of the switch ports were for dedicated, wired users
while 20% were for shared, wireless users. This ratio will need
to change: 80% of switch ports will have to be for shared,
wireless users, and 20% for dedicated, wired users.
This ‘80/20 flip’ is described in Figure 12.

23. 20
network barometer
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2014
Figure 12:
From wired to wireless – the architecture of current versus future networks
Wireless LAN
controller
48-port LAN
switches
Current – traditional wired and wireless access networks
• wired network
(100 users)
• cabling
(140 points)
• IP phones
• printers
• video endpoints
• security systems
• wireless networks
(100–200 devices)
• cabling
(1 point per access point)
• smartphones
• tablets
• laptops
48-port LAN
switch with built
in controller
Future – predominantly wireless access networks
• wired network
(10 users)
• cabling
(20 points)
• video endpoints
(some could be wireless)
• security systems
• wireless networks
(100–300 devices)
• cabling
(1 point per access point)
• smartphones
• tablets
• laptops
• printers
• video, etc.
For this change to occur, network devices in the access layer
require at least three features:
• power-over-Ethernet to power the access points
• gigabit Ethernet ports on the client side to enable the
300–800MB speeds of 802.11n/ac
• 10-gigabit uplinks – as more users access the network via
fewer ports, uplinks need greater capacity in order to avoid
congestion
The type of technology that organisations choose to refresh can
therefore indicate whether they’re preparing for this change
to pervasive wireless connectivity ... or not, as our 2013 results
showed. Last year:
• 49% of all ports supported power-over-Ethernet
• 32% of all ports supported gigabit Ethernet
• only 11% of access switches supported 10-gigabit uplinks
Based on these discovery results, organisations were clearly
investing in wireless access points and controllers, but not
making similar investments in their broader access network
infrastructure.

24. 21
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2014
This year’s results
WLAN bookings
In 2014 Dimension Data again saw strong growth in its
wireless business, up approximately 30% from the previous
year. Organisations continue to invest in pervasive wireless
connectivity at the edge of their networks. In addition, we
saw evidence of technology refresh in the access network
infrastructure needed to support this wireless connectivity:
• Gigabit access switch ports increased from one-third of all
switches last year to just under half this year.
• Switches that support 10-gigabit uplinks increased from just
over one-tenth to just under a quarter of all switches.
• There was a much smaller increase in ports that support
power-over-Ethernet, from just under half last year to just
over half this year.
How we interpret the results
The growth in the percentage of access switches that support
gigabit Ethernet and 10-gigabit uplink capacity tells us that
some refresh was taking place to support architectural trends
like pervasive wireless connectivity and enterprise mobility. This
is supported by our technology lifecycle data which shows that
most refresh occurred early in the obsolescence cycle where the
percentage of ageing devices dropped from 28% last year to
23% this year – as most ageing access switches in our sample
are still at early stages in their lifecycles.
Organisations tend to sweat their
network assets for as long as
possible to save costs, unless
the need for specific new features
becomes more pressing.
growing at
+30% pa
1/2
of all access switches
support PoE
Still at around
half of all ports =
51%
1/3
of all access switches
support GE
Increased to just
less than half of
all ports at
45%
Increased to
about a quarter
of all posts at
23%
11%
of all access switches
support 10GB
uplinks
For example, if an organisation requires greater bandwidth to
support pervasive wireless connectivity thanks to a host of new
mobile devices brought to work by employees, it would have no
choice but to refresh those devices sooner.

25. 22
network barometer
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2014
Are today’s networks prepared for
trends such as enterprise mobility?
45%
of access ports
support
gigabit
Ethernet
of access switches
10-gigabit
uplinks
we recommend
Have an accurate inventory
of your network estate.
Regularly review
your long-term network architecture requirements.
Understand your ‘as-is’ state,
define your ‘to-be’ state, and plan the steps
of your journey to get there.
power-over
-Ethernet
23%
51%
of access switches
support
support

26. 23
network barometer
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2014
Recommendations
Given this year’s results, Dimension Data recommends that the
most effective way to improve your network service levels and
ensure maximum network availability is to invest in mature
operational systems and support processes – particularly
problem and change management – rather than refreshing
technology simply for the sake of avoiding obsolescence.
Figure 13:
Dimension Data’s operational support maturity model
Whether an organisation chooses to sweat its network assets as long as possible or if it decides to refresh some or
all of its network, robust and mature operational support processes will ensure maximum availability.
Moving towards the ‘optimised’ level doesn’t necessarily
require you to have all capabilities in-house. In fact, many day-to-
day IT operational requirements are not strategic to most
organisations: knowing how to replace a fixed-access switch in
the wiring closet doesn’t add to your organisation’s competitive
advantage.
In many cases, it’s best to partner with an expert provider of
network managed or outsourcing services. This will free up your
own IT resources to focus on strategic projects that substantially
build your competitive advantage.
As shown in Figure 13, and based on our experience in
evaluating organisations’ operational support maturity, the
vast majority (90%) of organisations are still at the first or
second level of maturity. These levels are characterised by a
lack of standard processes, ad hoc troubleshooting tools, and
ambiguous roles and responsibilities for IT staff, resulting in
extended network downtime and increased operational costs.
These points notwithstanding, the primary requirement of the
network is to deliver the services necessary to support business.
Architectural trends such as cloud and enterprise mobility
– and, eventually, software-defined networking – provide
significant opportunities for organisations to improve employee
productivity, increase sales, and shorten time-to-market.
Therefore, the primary criterion for deciding whether to refresh
your network is its ability to support business requirements –
not whether the device is obsolete.
In summary, the decision of whether or not to upgrade your
network depends equally on your technical and architectural
requirements, and the maturity of your operational support
systems and processes. Dimension Data recommends the
following approach to the technology refresh decision:
Initial
• ad hoc
• undocumented
• unpredictable
• poorly controlled
• reactive
• no automation
• roles and responsibilities
undefined
Repeatable
• some documented
processes
• processes not
uniformly used
• some automation
• limited definition of
roles and responsibilities
Defined
• processes are proactive
• automation exists for
defined processes
• roles are well defined
• mature asset and change
management processes
Managed
• set quality goals
• guaranteed SLAs
• monitoring and reporting
• processes are integrated
• automation tools
are integrated
• capacity planning
Optimised
• IT and business
metric linkage
• continuous service
improvement
• IT improves
business process
• business planning
Complete lack of
organisation
Holding down
the fort
Well run
cost centre
Business
alignment
Business
driver

27. 24
network barometer
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2014
Figure 14:
The technology refresh decision tree
Acquire additional
support services
Yes Can the organisation
Yes
effectively
support the device?
The starting point is visibility: gain a clear view of your
infrastructure by creating and maintaining an accurate inventory
of all your networking devices. Then, understand each device’s
lifecycle status, security vulnerabilities, and future-readiness.
Lastly, define your organisation’s capability and maturity in
supporting and maintaining this crucial asset – your network –
as the platform for your business.
Do not refresh
the device
To help you with all your network assessment, maintenance, and
support requirements, Dimension Data offers the following:
• Technology Lifecycle Management Assessment
• Network Optimisation Assessment
• Network Architecture Consulting Workshop
• IT Support Assessment
• IT Service Management Assessment
• Uptime and Insite Maintenance and Support Services
• Managed Services for Enterprise Networks
• IT outsourcing services for the network tower
Is the device fit
for purpose?
Move the device
to another part of
the network
Can it be moved
to another part of
the network?
Refresh device
Yes
No
No
No
The starting point is visibility:
gain a clear view of your
infrastructure by creating
and maintaining an accurate
inventory of all your
networking devices.

28. 25
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2014
Appendix A – sample distribution
This appendix provides details about the sample data sets used
for the information in this report.
Technology lifecycle, type, and
vulnerability data
The technology lifecycle information published in this Report
was gathered during the 2013 calendar year through Dimension
Data’s Technology Lifecycle Management Assessments
conducted for 288 clients around the world, covering 74,000
devices. This is a significantly larger sample size than last year,
which covered 233 Assessments and 60,000 devices.
Information from the Network Barometer Reports of 2009,
2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 was gathered during the 2008,
2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 calendar years respectively.
Dimension Data’s Technology Lifecycle Management Assessment
is a highly automated service that uses technology tools to scan
our clients’ networks. The information gathered from these
scans is analysed on a centralised portal, using a standardised
process and framework.
Figure 15:
Percentage of nodes (devices) by organisation size
Figure 16:
Percentage of nodes (devices) by industry sector
12%
This year, the data sample achieved greater balance among
industry sectors. In previous years, there was some bias towards
government; health care and education; and financial services,
which together accounted for more than half of the sample set.
This combined portion has shrunk significantly this year, with
automotive and manufacturing, and consumer goods and retail,
now occupying the top two positions.
2%
86%
12%
Enterprise
Enterprise
Large
Large
Medium
Small
The majority of data came from enterprise and large
organisations, reflecting Dimension Data’s client base.
19%
17%
11%
2%
3%
Automotive and
manufacturing
Business services
Construction and
real estate
Consumer goods
and retail
Financial services
Government health care
and education
Media – entertainment
and hospitality
Resources – utilities
and energy
Service providers
and telecommunications
6%
3%
5%
17%
5%
Technology
Travel and transportation
2%
86%
12%
Medium
Small

29. 26
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2014
Figure 17:
Percentage of nodes (devices), by region
Figure 18:
Number of assessments by country
53
This year’s report covered 32 countries in five regions.
Spain
South Africa
Switzerland
Singapore
Philippines
Nigeria
New Zealand
Netherlands
Morocco
Malaysia
Kenya
Japan
Italy
Indonesia
India
Hong Kong
Germany
France
Czech Republic
China
Chile
Canada
Brazil
Botswana
Belgium
Australia
10
3 2 3
6
1
6 10
17
3
23
1
4
1
6
28
2 4
8
1 2 4
6
29
12
Tanzania
Thailand
UAE
Uganda
UK
US
3 2 2 1
17 18
18%
26%
29%
Americas
Asia Pacific
Australia
Europe
Middle East & Africa
11%
16%

30. Appendix B – services data
27
network barometer
report
2014
This year, we introduced a new data set to corroborate the
assessment results with helpdesk data. Our aim was to deepen
our understanding of the business impact of obsolescence on
network failures and downtime. We analysed over 91,000
service 58.8%
incidents – or ‘trouble tickets’ – handled by four of our
GSCs, to understand the types of incidents we’ve handled in
maintaining our clients’ networks, and the relationship of these
incidents to the lifecycle data.
17.8%
Figure 19:
Number of service incidents by region
The analysis of the incident data was based on a subset of
Dimension Data’s total maintenance base. We chose a selected
set of network asset types in order to align with the technology
aspects of this report, and account for the merging of systems
following mergers and acquisitions.
With just under a million devices creating an incident volume of
almost 91,000, this represents a statistically relevant sample.
58.8%
17.8%
Figure 20:
Device type count, by region
Americas Asia Australia Europe Middle East & Africa Overall
58,889
Table 3:
Top 10 PSIRTs
17,854
7,174
14,069
29,702
21,632
76,486
153,905
Rank PSIRT title Count Penetration
rate
137,117
131,831
228,961
Last year’s
rank
Published
1 Cisco IOS Software Network Address Translation
Vulnerabilities – 112253
18 539 39% 3 28 September 2011
2 Cisco IOS Software Multiple Features Crafted UDP Packet
Vulnerability – 108558
17 561 37% 5 25 March 2009
3 Cisco VLAN Trunking Protocol Vulnerability – 108203 14 336 30% 7 6 November 2008
4 TCP State Manipulation Denial of Service Vulnerabilities in
Multiple Cisco Products – IOS – 109444
14 052 29% 1 1 September 2009
5 Cisco IOS Software Command Authorization Bypass – null 13 675 29% 2 29 March 2012
6 Cisco IOS Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerabilities – 98605 14 584 28% 6 6 February 2009
7 Cisco IOS Software Multicast Source Discovery Protocol
Vulnerability – null
11 632 24% 4 29 March 2012
8 Cisco IOS Software Tunnels Vulnerability - CSCsx70889 –
109482
11 157 23% 9 28 September 2009
9 Cisco IOS Software Multiple Features IP Sockets Vulnerability
– 109333
11 052 23% 8 25 March 2009
10 Cisco IOS Software DHCP Version 6 Server Denial of Service
Vulnerability – null
10 453 22% N/A 18 October 2012
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
3.9%
10.1%
90.8%
Americas
Asia Pacific
Europe
Middle East & Africa
Total
3,990
10,123
90,856
Americas Asia Australia Europe Middle East & Africa 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
3.9%
10.1%
90.8%
Middle East Total
& Africa
Americas Asia Pacific Europe
4.596
4,639
10,997
165,871
227.025
423,565

31. 28
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2014
List of acronyms
GSC Global Service Centre (Dimension Data)
ICT information and communication technology
MEA Middle East & Africa
PSIRT Product Security Incident Response Team
List of figures
Figure 1: Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices, global average
Figure 2: Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices by region
Figure 3: Percentage of ageing and obsolete devices by industry
Figure 4: Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage in the Network Barometer Report 2013
Figure 5: Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage in the Network Barometer Report 2014
Figure 6: Covered assets by lifecycle stage
Figure 7: Incidents by resolution category
Figure 8: Device failure rate by lifecycle stage
Figure 9: Mean-time-to-repair by lifecycle stage
Figure 10: Number of PSIRTs announced per year
Figure 11: Percentage of devices with PSIRTs by region
Figure 12: From wired to wireless – the architecture of current versus future networks
Figure 13: Dimension Data’s operational support maturity model
Figure 14: The technology refresh decision tree
Figure 15: Percentage of nodes (devices) by organisation size
Figure 16: Percentage of nodes (devices) by industry sector
Figure 17: Percentage of nodes (devices) by region
Figure 18: Number of assessments by country
Figure 19: Number of service incidents by region
Figure 20: Device type count by region
List of tables
Table 1: Technology lifecycle stages, associated risk levels, and required support environment maturity
Table 2: Percentage of devices by lifecycle stage, by incident
Table 3: Top 10 PSIRTs

32. Middle East & Africa
Algeria · Angola
Botswana · Congo · Burundi
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gabon · Ghana · Kenya
Malawi · Mauritius · Morocco
Mozambique · Namibia · Nigeria
Oman · Rwanda · Saudi Arabia
South Africa
Tanzania · Uganda
United Arab Emirates · Zambia
Asia
China · Hong Kong
India · Indonesia · Japan
Korea · Malaysia
New Zealand · Philippines
Singapore · Taiwan
Thailand · Vietnam
Australia
Australian Capital Territory
New South Wales · Queensland
South Australia · Victoria
Western Australia
Europe
Austria · Belgium
Czech Republic · France
Germany · Hungary
Ireland · Italy
Luxembourg · Netherlands
Poland · Portugal
Slovakia · Spain ·
Turkey · United Kingdom
Switzerland
Americas
Brazil · Canada · Chile
Mexico · United States
For contact details in your region please visit www.dimensiondata.com/globalpresence