Research highlights the imminent demise of legacy networks

70% of organisations are looking for more cost-effective and flexible technologies to replace ATM, frame relay and leased lines

16th May, Egham - Viatel has today announced the results of an independent survey which highlighted the imminent demise of legacy networks. Of the IT directors surveyed 70% of organisations are looking at alternative technologies for the wide area network to help reduce costs and consolidate networking technologies, and this rises to 90% in the retail, distribution and transport sectors.

The results therefore suggest real discontent with legacy networks built up over time. The research also showed that 79% were discouraged by the cost of upgrading when it came to considering extra capacity for the WAN, due to the costs associated with jumping to the next level of bandwidth. The remainder were discouraged by the inflexibility of legacy networks and the length of time it takes to upgrade.

The issues then are two fold; not only are companies considering alternative technologies for the WAN, but they have also been discouraged from investing further in their existing infrastructure. This also goes some way to explaining why companies are looking at alternatives; legacy networks are seen as costly and inflexible and are actually deterring companies from adding extra capacity, which will therefore have an impact on the technologies and applications they can effectively implement.

"The death of ATM has been on the cards for a while now and it is only a matter of time before frame relay and leased lines start to play only a marginal role in networks, as companies don't want to have to pay huge sums of money for bandwidth they might only need in a year's time," commented Roberto Bonanzinga, senior vice president, business development and marketing, Viatel.

Companies are therefore faced with a huge headache when adding extra capacity to the WAN and compounding this is that almost half of those questioned confessed that worrying about applications that require large amounts of bandwidth, such as storage and back up, kept them awake at night.

Companies are therefore caught between a rock and a hard place; they are faced with emerging business requirements on the one hand and outdated networks on the other. This is particularly evident in the retail, distribution and transport sectors where the majority of companies are concerned specifically by the cost and flexibility of bandwidth. This may in part be due to the distributed nature of their businesses, which necessitates high capacity, cost effective bandwidth to connect their sites, and also suggests why such a high majority are considering alternatives to the WAN.

"Legacy networks aren't capable of meeting today's business requirements and therefore companies need to look at more cost effective solutions that will allow them to buy extra capacity as they need it and therefore provide them with the necessary power for the latest bandwidth hungry applications," continued Bonanzinga.

Ethernet looks set to become the main alternative to legacy networks with 89% of survey respondents stating that they would consider Ethernet for their wide area networks. With 94% of financial services companies considering the technology, it is clear that it is seen as a secure and established technology.

"Businesses looking at upgrading to Ethernet need to be aware that an immediate switch will cause disruption and should therefore look for an easy migration path, for which a multi-service platform will be necessary," continued Bonanzinga.

The survey was conducted by Vanson Bourne and represented the opinions of one hundred IT Directors.

About Viatel

Viatel is a pan-European business communications company operating across 6 European markets, including the UK, France and Germany. It has more than 10,000 business customers, providing them a range of business communication services that help companies of all sizes to access the internet, connect their people and places, manage their web applications and increase the security of their data. Headed by Lucy Woods, formerly CEO of WorldCom EMEA and BT Northern Ireland, the company employs 200 people throughout Western Europe.

For further information on Viatel, please visit:

www.viatel.com

For further information please call:

Ana Williams on +44 (0)207 357 8612

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