Wide Area Networks or WANs are a common way to connect different parts of a business but as you grow they can also present a number of challenges.

The shift to a more cloud focus is putting a strain on traditional router-centric WAN architecture.

We wanted to know more about how this is impacting businesses so we decided to ask the people who are responsible for network infrastructure in their organisation.

We asked how they connected their office locations; whether they were struggling with latency; and what WAN issues they wanted to resolve.

We had over 1500 respondents to our survey from companies with office locations across the UK and internationally.

The main issues they highlighted were:

  • Application performance
  • Speed
  • Cost
  • Adaptability

We’ve pulled together the results in the infographic below.

The results of our survey suggest that WAN is holding many of you back and what businesses need from their network is changing, driven by the migration to the cloud and the rise of remote working.

What the respondents indicate is the need for a network that can cope with the demands of virtual applications and desktops, and the video and conferencing tools that organisations are using to increase collaboration and productivity.

Our managed connectivity portfolio ServiceLink has been created with this in mind. This includes our Managed WAN service; our Managed SD-WAN service for centralised and cloud-optimised network performance; CloudLink to manage public cloud connectivity in different geographical locations; data centre connectivity to guarantee resilience; and last mile connectivity and multicast networking for media streaming.

By providing you with the most comprehensive connectivity solutions we can enable your business to manage and connect complex workloads quickly and cost-effectively across multiple clouds and locations.

If you'd like to find out more about how we can help, get in touch.