Three-quarters of public sector networks plagued by inefficiency, claims report

Study by Easynet Global Services finds poor bandwidth hinders mission-critical applications and productivity

Despite an increase in network spending, three-quarters of public sector organisations are experiencing problems with accessing and using networked IT applications, putting their networking way behind those of other industries.

That's according to research published by connectivity solutions provider Easynet Global Services.

Network inefficiency leads to a decrease in productivity as employees struggle with slow or unresponsive IT applications, claims the KillerApps 2013 report.

Of those CIOs and IT directors in the public sector who responded to the survey, conducted by independent market research firm Vason Bourne on behalf of Easynet, 75 per cent said they had experienced performance issues with critical applications in the past 12 months. Worryingly, 45 per cent suggested problems are getting worse, despite an increase in network spending.

When asked which type of applications are causing the most problems within their organisation, 35 per cent of CIOs said operational applications suffered the most performance problems, while 33 per cent said video applications frequently cause strife.

The study also suggests over half of public sector organisations don't know how much bandwidth their applications consume, with just 44 per cent having an understanding about this area, compared with the 60 per cent figure of the cross-industry average.

Easynet's KillerApps 2013 report argues that without knowledge of what's causing problems on the network, it's impossible to combat application performance issues.

"The results of this study suggest that public sector organisations are struggling with IT management and fighting to reduce instances of application slowness or non-responsiveness," said Alan Fogden, head of public sector at Easynet Global Services.

"If a mission-critical system is down for a mere five minutes each day the organisation is losing around one per cent of overall productivity," he continued.

"Simply throwing additional network capacity at this problem won't fix it. Public sector companies need a more thorough understanding of what's happening across their networks with the ability to manage the performance of those applications that really matter," Fogden added.