WAN speeds hindered by slow rollout of fibre

Bandwidth struggling to cope with increased demand, suggests Eclipse Internet's Andrew Saunders

The most significant issue organisations have with their wide area network (WAN) solutions is performance, or speed of throughput of data.

That's according to a Computing survey of 120 IT professionals on the subject of networking, the results of which were revealed during a web seminar Why can't WAN be more like LAN? which was hosted in association with internet service provider Eclipse Internet. Of those surveyed, 38 per cent cited performance as an issue for their organisation's WAN.

Andrew Saunders, head of product at Eclipse, explained that this issue is due to local access technologies, specifically an increase in web capacity required by businesses, with which existing local broadband technologies are failing to keep up.

"What we're seeing is bandwidth requirements increasing something like 20 per cent year on year as we all use more applications and data. Within our network it's easy to increase traffic, but the challenge is at the customers' sites, especially at the mid to small sites where fibre broadband isn't available and regular broadband isn't providing enough speed," he said.

Saunders told the panel that Eclipse is seeing an increased interest in bonded broadband - essentially tying two to four broadband ADSL lines together in an effort to increase speed - but said that a more permanent solution is needed.

"The real answer is to see more fibre rolled out to businesses," he said.

Chris Cranie, IT director at sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust, argued that the problem isn't just about bandwidth, but also ensuring that the WAN fits in with the way the organisation operates and supports its ongoing strategy.

"You've got to think strategically about what your organisation is doing," he told the panel, suggesting that local connectivity, general networking architecture and operational factors all need to be addressed.

"You can't just look at the bandwidth, look at how your organisation operates and design your WAN for your organisation. You might need to change how your organisation operates and accesses data."

Other concerns about WAN solutions listed by those who responded to the Computing survey included responsiveness of service providers (31 per cent), cost of ownership (27 per cent) and latency (24 per cent).