Enterprise Drives 10 Gb Movement

Two months ago we questioned nearly 600 IT professionals and executives about troubleshooting practices and technology adoption. Over the weekend, I had the chance to dig further into respondents’ answers with regard to 10 Gb (10 Gigabit Ethernet) to uncover which organizations are driving adoption.

We’re currently at the beginning of what I think is a steady move to 10 Gb with nearly one-quarter of businesses worldwide implementing by the end of this year. Thirteen percent of global organizations have deployed 10 Gb networks, while another 11 percent expect to roll out 10 Gb in the next 12 months.

Size Matters
In my analysis, enterprise organizations (networks with more than 2500 users) were the clear 10 Gb implementation leaders. One-quarter had already deployed, and an additional 28 percent will deploy by the end of 2008. The second most likely group to implement 10 Gb had between 500–2499 users. 14 percent of these had implemented 10 Gb with an additional 12 percent implementing in 12 months.

We illustrate the trend of larger organizations rolling out 10 Gb below. Implementations are classified by network size.

Location, Location, Location
Location played a role in the likelihood of 10 Gb adoption among respondents. Twenty-seven percent of European organizations will have implemented 10 Gb by the end of 2008 (16% already implemented, 11% implementing within 12 months). This compared to 23 percent of North American organizations, with 12 percent having deployed and 11 percent implementing within 12 months. As far as the statistical significance between locations, it’s hard to identify this as a clear trend given the 4 percent difference is within the margin of error.

To put these statistics into perspective I asked a couple of Network Instruments colleagues about 10 Gb adoption drivers. Charles Thompson, manager of systems engineering, talked about the impact of network size on adoption.

“Among more massive organizations, there’s a real need for the extra bandwidth that’s being fueled by user dependence on network-driven applications, ranging from Unified Communications and VoIP to Web 2.0 applications. With other organizations, two factors seem to be driving adoption. First, network traffic is increasing as they continually add applications and upgrade to eliminate congestion. There has also been significant push among vendors to migrate to 10 Gb, and they may be creating movement through price reductions and marketing pressure.“

Ian Cummins, who heads up our activities in EMEA, thought European adoption was driven by the need to send more data quickly.

“The need is easy to identify. Most organizations want to send higher volumes of data at higher speeds. The price differential between gigabit and 10 Gb has eroded, so when companies are upgrading their infrastructure for a new technology roll-out, they’re opting to install 10 Gb.”

So, what’s driving 10 Gb? It’s hard to say for sure, but it seems that the increased number of network-driven applications and user dependence on the network are really driving the push among larger organizations. If you have any thoughts on deploying 10 Gb or adoption trends, add a comment. It’d be great to hear from you.

Tags: 10 Gb adoption, enterprise network