Research from Ciena has discovered that a fifth of UK firms are still using hardware that is over three years old.
The research showed 27 percent of UK firms using WAN connections of up to five years old. The old kit is unlikely to meet current standards, deliver high-speeds or help those firms that are keen to unlock cost efficiencies across the organisation.
There were also signs that a number of users would invest in site-to-site fibre to make sure they could get better data speeds.
Ciena vice president and general manager Keri Gilder said: “As traffic volumes in both the data centre and in the office environment continue to surge, businesses are looking to extract maximum value from their infrastructure investments. As the study shows, investment in external WAN bandwidth and interconnects is critical, but if it’s being connected to legacy equipment, the potential benefits of better and fluid bandwidth won’t be realised.”
The Ciena research aimed to compare the situation in the UK with that in Germany and businesses here came up short when compared to their continental counterparts.
The mean average spent annually on data centre network infrastructure is £161,000 in the UK, with an additional £86,000 being spent on WAN and interconnects. In Germany, the average spent was €326,000 annually on data centre network infrastructure and €140,000 on WAN and other interconnects.
