Companies expect Olympics to strain their networks

The vast majority of companies (85%) plan to more closely monitor the performance of their applications and networks, including Wi-Fi, because of potential strain due to employees accessing Olympic content.

A survey conducted by Riverbed Technology revealed that only 2% stated that they were very unlikely to monitor any differently during this the Olympics.

The network strain in office is likely to be prevalent in Singapore, with national broadcaster Mediacorp only being able to air delayed telecasts of the Olympics due to broadcasting rights.

“The time zone difference mean that finals will be aired during working hours, and with no live telecast in Singapore, sports fans are likely to turn to live streaming to cheer on Team Singapore – on company networks. IT organizations need to come together and prepare for the significant increase in network traffic that will occur as a result of employees streaming and accessing online content,” said Bjorn Engelhardt, SVP, Riverbed, Asia Pacific and Japan.

Companies expected employees to access Olympic content using the company’s networks, including Wi-Fi, most frequently via their desktops and laptops (48%); followed by smartphones (34%); and then tablets or other non-smartphone devices (18%).

The reason for monitoring employees’ access to Olympic content could potentially be linked to companies being unable to quickly pinpoint and resolve performance issues of critical business applications:  Less than half of the companies surveyed, 43%, were very confident that their organizations could safeguard critical applications during high network traffic events such as the Olympics, while 12% were not confident that their companies could handle the added strain and traffic.

In one of the most revealing statistics, companies were asked if they’ve had an issue, even once, with their networks, including Wi-Fi, specifically because employees were accessing content during a popular event such as the Olympics. The majority of companies responded yes (69%), with 30% of these same companies saying that they have experienced more than one episode of issues. The survey also found that the majority (70%) of companies said they would limit or probably limit employees from accessing Olympic content through company networks, including Wi-Fi, in some way, with 24% saying they will definitely limit content and 46% saying they would probably limit content.

“The results of the survey highlight how popular events such as the Olympics and the impact of BYOD are affecting companies and the need for greater visibility to safeguard networks and business critical applications. IT must take a proactive approach to managing application performance with end-to-end visibility across the network from the server to the end user,” said Engelhardt.