Don’t watch England at work, say IT managers

England fans will have to forgo watching the World Cup at work if they take IT managers' advice

More than half of IT managers believe that employees should be banned from streaming 2010 FIFA World Cup matches at work, according to Blue Coat Systems.

The networking firm carried out a survey that showed IT and networking professionals believe their corporate networks could be placed under severe strain from bandwidth-hungry internet video, as employees spend part of their working day following their teams during the tournament in South Africa.

One of England’s group matches is scheduled to take place during the work day, and companies may find their bandwidth is fully occupied by streaming video. By watching England’s match online, employees could prevent their employer’s network performing important business functions, as many companies say they have no policies (65 per cent) or technology (59 per cent) in place to prioritise vital business applications and ensure the most efficient delivery of video streaming.

While most of the IT managers surveyed believe that watching matches at work should be banned, 69 per cent were convinced that employees will be determined to watch them. With just three weeks before the first kick-off, companies must promptly educate employees or put technology in place to alleviate the problem.

“As a streamed football match consumes around 750MB of bandwidth, it’s important that IT and HR managers clearly communicate their corporate rules to employees.”