Half of enterprise devices are ageing or obsolete

More than half of the devices on corporate networks worldwide are either ageing or obsolete, according to Dimension Data’s latest Network Barometer Report.

The report shows that the percentage of devices classified as ageing - past end-of-sale but not end-of-support - or outright obsolete - past end-of-support - is the highest in six years.

A further 27% of devices are classified as being ‘later’ in their product life cycle, indicating that they are at the point where the vendor begins to reduce support.

Dimension Data National Manager for Networking Gregg Sultana said this indicates that the effects of the global financial crisis are still lingering today.

“The conventional assumption was that a technology refresh cycle was imminent. However, our data reveals that organisations are sweating their network assets for longer than expected,” he said.

Product refresh cycles have slowed as organisations continue to focus on reducing capex and other costs, and as the emergence of as-a-service models reduces the need for organisations to invest in their own infrastructure, Sultana said.

He added that the emerging software-defined networking (SDN) trend appears to be causing organisations to adopt a ‘wait-and-see’ approach before implementing new network technology.

“We expect that growth in cloud computing, mobility and the number of connected ‘things’ will put additional strain on the network and that clients will have to re-look their network architecture, not the individual devices.”

Organisations in Australia bucked the trend with a slight reduction in the number of ageing or obsolete devices on their networks. But this was largely because Australia had a higher proportion of obsolete devices than most of the world during the previous year.

Image courtesy of Nico Kaiser under CC