F5 Networks second annual report expanded to include EMEA

F5 Networks, a multinational American company which specializes in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), released the results of its first ever EMEA ‘State of Application Delivery customer survey’.

This year’s report details provides fresh, multi-industry insight on how organisations are delivering applications successfully, how they keep data and users secure, and how hybrid cloud, software-defined networking (SDN), and DevOps are changing IT.

“Applications are vital to business success. Used by every employee, applications contribute to greater efficiency, lower costs, and increased margins,” said Karl Triebes, CTO and EVP of product development at F5. “Without the correct services to support applications, they won’t be available, secure, or fast enough to meet companies’ needs. The results of this year’s State of Application Delivery survey offer valuable insights into how customers are managing and implementing their application services within dynamic and complex IT environments.”

This second annual report was expanded to include EMEA and it outlines how the world’s top companies manage application delivery. It was also expanded to include feedback from more than 3, 000 customers worldwide including 980 in EMEA.

A variety of industries are represented in the 2016 State of the Application Delivery survey, with the widest participation from customers in finance, technology, telecom companies, and government entities.

Key takeaways include: Application services are essential and pervasive: 44 per cent of EMEA businesses use over 200 application services across the company every day. The figure is surely set to grow as 42 per cent of respondents’ listed mobile applications as a focus for IT spend in 2016. It is becoming clear that slow, unresponsive, and unsecured applications can have a substantial negative impact on revenue and operations.

Hybrid cloud is becoming the new normal:  The report found that 30 per cent of EMEA organisations have a ‘cloud-first’ strategy – where cloud-based IT solutions are evaluated before making any new IT investments.  Additionally, 67 per cent of businesses estimate up to 50 per cent of applications will be hosted in the cloud by the end of 2016. A hybrid cloud environment allows organisations, particularly small and mid-sized, to leverage flexibility and potential cost savings.

Security focus is on protecting users, data, and applications: Security professionals who have the highest level of confidence in their ability to ward off attacks are protecting clients, requests, and responses—the critical points at which data can be easily compromised. Network firewalls (84 per cent) and anti-virus technology (85 per cent) are the two most deployed security application services for EMEA firms. But more challenges lie ahead: 22 per cent said the lack of employee understanding provides the biggest security challenge in the next 12 months

DevOps and SDN are key to improving operational efficiency: Because DevOps and SDN enable automation and orchestration, they are both seen as key factors for reducing operating costs and improving time to market.