European enterprise networking lacks hybrid maturity

A study from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) for InfoBlox has found that European organisations have less mature networking practices to support hybrid and multicloud architectures compared to their counterparts in other regions.

The study, based on a poll of 1,000 IT security and networking managers, of which 300 were from Europe, assessed network maturity in terms of whether their organisation had established a cross-functional cloud platform team that combines network, security and cloud operations practitioners.

In terms of technology maturity, the ESG research assessed the level of automation deployed for network and security management, as well as the use of enterprise-grade, cloud-neutral networking products and a measure of the organisation’s defence in-depth strategy.

Comparing the maturity level of organisations in Europe to the rest of the world shows that, while there is a fair degree of consistency across the globe, organisations in Europe are significantly more likely to be in the least mature cohort (55% versus 44%), meaning those in Europe, on balance, have a lower degree of hybrid and multicloud maturity.

ESG also assessed organisations’ platform engineering capabilities. Platform engineering teams are often used to ensure a higher degree of standardisation and automation in cloud operations. For ESG, a platform engineering team should focus on implementing best practices for security, network configuration, compliance and performance optimisation uniformly across the organisation, which, it said, leads to more consistent and reliable cloud environments. “This focus reduces the workload on product and development teams, enabling them to dedicate their efforts to delivering features and innovations,” it said.

The survey showed that fewer European organisations currently employ platform engineers than those in other surveyed regions (66% versus 74%). However, these roles are more likely to be created at European organisations over the next 12 months (29% versus 22%), meaning the region as a whole is poised to catch up to the global benchmark.

European organisations also tend to be taking a less mature approach when it comes to networking and security tool convergence, according to ESG. Relative to their counterparts in other regions, they were 44% more likely to be taking a completely siloed approach (26% versus 18%), the survey found.

Discussing the research, Frank Ruge, senior vice-president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at InfoBlox, said: “The research shows that most companies in Europe are not realising their full potential. Compared to their counterparts around the world, it’s time to catch up. While the gap is not yet insurmountable, it is very significant in areas such as building platform teams, converging cloud networking and security tools, and the use of network core services to improve asset management and security.”

One of the technologies highlighted in the report is domain name system (DNS) security, which protects people internal to the corporate network from accessing malicious websites. The ESG survey reported that European organisations less often use DNS extensively for cloud asset discovery and visibility.

“DNS-based discovery helps in identifying unauthorised or rogue devices that may pose security risks, enabling quicker isolation and mitigation. Similarly, it facilitates better monitoring of traffic patterns and user behaviour, enabling the detection of suspicious activities such as lateral movement by attackers within the network,” said ESG.

According to ESG, using DNS for infrastructure discovery also enables security teams to automatically map out all active devices and services within the cloud environment. It urged European network managers to embrace DNS fully among the technologies they use to optimise network management and security operations.