Security is emerging as the major concern in enterprise access networks in North America, says a new research from Infonetics Research.
According to Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research, last year has seen a number of high profile data breaches, and companies can’t afford to become the next victim.
As a result, security is seen as the next big change that North American businesses make in their access networks this year.
Major transformation in enterprise networks is driven by an influx of new devices, greater device diversity, and new application models.
“Not only are companies upgrading and expanding coverage to accommodate their growing needs, they’re also rethinking their approach to network operations and are looking to unify network silos and implement more flexible management approaches,” Machowinski added.
Survey participants intend to grow the number of access points in their wireless networks by about 19 percent per year over the next 2 years.
The current installed base of access points is heavily tilted toward older WLAN generations, but for new access point deployments, respondents prefer 802.11ac by a margin of 2:1 over 802.11a/b/g/n
The number of bring-your-own devices (BYOD) is growing from 29 percent of all devices today to almost 40 percent by 2016, driven by wider user adoption within existing BYOD companies, as well as multiple devices per user, the survey said.
Respondents expect their user population to grow by 10 percent per year over the next 2 years, driven to a large extent by guest access, which will account for only 18 percent of the user population by 2016.
