UK networkers look to wireless networks and IP telephony for 2012

Wireless networks and IP telephony are set to be the most common networking initiatives implemented by UK users in 2012, according to TechTarget’s 2012 IT Priorities Survey.

TechTarget surveyed 225 UK users in November and December 2011 online around their priorities for the New Year and found that the majority were more concerned with having secure, flexible and scalable networks to run wirelessly from any location and were less interested in speed and storage.

Disappointingly 16.5% said that none of these would be implemented in 2012 and a further 5.8% said they did not know.

However, of the respondents that were implementing new assets in 2012, the majority (25.2%) identified investing in their wireless networks and/or IP telephony as their main networking priority for the New Year.  

Asked to break down just how essential these were to businesses in 2012, 61.5% said investing in wireless was a medium priority for them. Comparatively, 96% had prioritised IP telephony with 48% making it a high priority and the same amount saying it was a medium priority.

Evidently, IP telephony gateways are continuing to play an important role in extending UC services to remote sites across the wide area network (WAN), in many cases serving as a mini-PBX by providing not only call routing back to headquarters but also access to local dial tone in cases of emergency or WAN outage.

Network virtualisation was the next most important priority to respondents with 18.4% saying their company would implement such technologies. Overall, 72.2% made it a medium priority for 2012.

The increasing demand for flexible working spaces and Bring Your Own Device schemes means that remote access and branch office connectivity with17.5% choosing to review potentially implementing these technologies, 44.4% of whom made it a high priority, with another 38.9% considering it medium. Connecting branch or remote offices to the VPN using DSL is clearly still considered a solid solution to a secure connection.

WAN optimisation and acceleration came fifth with 16.5% identifying it as a potential area for investment and half of respondents indicated it was a medium priority, whilst a quarter said it was low or high respectively. Unified communications was just behind with 15.5%, of whom 46.7% said it was a high priority and 40% deemed it medium.

Video conferencing is also becoming more interesting to IT buyers with 13.6% seeking to implement it in 2012, of whom 46.2% consider it a high priority and 30.8% a medium priority.

Slightly less in demand is converged storage and data centre network fabric and the long awaited launch of IPv6, both receiving just 10.7% of interest and the majority (45.5%) saying it is a medium priority while 36.4% deem it high. Ethernet implemetations will also be low, meeting just 7.8% of demand – the majority (42.9%) of whom say it is low priority, and network automation only gets 6.8% of demand, deemed as a medium priority by 57.1%.