More than two-thirds of organisations have seen an uptick in network security threats over the last 18 months, according to research from Daisy Corporate Services.

Nearly three-quarters of those organisations polled for Daisy’s State of Networking Report 2024 say that cyber security threats are the biggest networking challenge they currently face, with two fifths stating that remote and hybrid working are the biggest contributors to heightened threat levels.

Growing network complexity is making it more difficult and costly for organisations to secure and manage their networks. Almost two-thirds say their current network is made up from a patchwork of different vendor technologies, which has created network management issues for the vast majority.

Whilst simplifying this network infrastructure is now a priority for these firms, IT budgets are still being spent on maintaining legacy network hardware, making it harder for organisations to implement modernisation and improvement programmes.

“At a time when the network perimeter is becoming increasingly virtual and a growing number of business processes and applications are online, it has never been so important to be able to maintain and manage a secure boundary between your network and the outside world,” commented Joel Cunningham, head of Connect at Daisy Corporate Services. “Simply hoping your remote employees will enable a VPN outside the office doesn’t constitute a robust network security strategy.”

Even seemingly simple upgrades – such as moving to the newer WiFi 6 standard – appears to be a challenge, which cost a major factor. Only 21% of the 250 companies surveyed by Daisy currently have WiFi 6 deployed across most of their organisation.

“Legacy networking equipment remains a huge cost centre, preventing organisations from reaching their sustainability goals and causing significant overspend across maintenance and power consumption,” Cunningham added. “The traditional approaches to managing wide area networks often fall short in addressing these complex issues. However, Software-Defined Wide Area Networking has emerged and evolved into a transformative solution. This powerful technology not only solves the problem of optimising network performance but enhances security measures, giving organisations an edge in the ever-evolving threat landscape.”

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