Is your business ready for a connected future? NETWORK READINESS SURVEY3Table of contentsExecutive Summary 3Introduction 4The move to digital 5Current network capabilities 6Meeting future demands 8Readiness to support cloud and digital initiatives 10Top barriers to networks keeping pace with business demands 11The way forward: software-defined networks 13Who decides to improve the network? 14Funding network capability improvements 15The new network paradigm 16Time for a new network paradigm 184Executive SummaryAccenture surveyed 300 senior IT and business executives on enterprise networks ability to meet todays demands and future requirements We looked at factors driving increased demand on enterprise networks, such as IOT, edge, analytics, and digital experience We found that while many companies were satisfied with their overall network capabilities, bandwidth and reliability were top concerns Less than half indicated their networks are completely ready to support cloud and digital The key barrier most frequently cited in keeping networks in line with business demands was the misalignment between IT and business needs We also heard that business demands have outpaced the ability of IT to deliver services Most companies were in the process of deploying SDN in parts of their organization to address the challenges they face, but even though many organizations said they were moving toward a unified enterprise network approach, it was clear that the majority continue to see their networks in pieces and parts. Companies will have to undertake significant work before they will achieve a unified enterprise capability to support business needs todayand tomorrow 5IntroductionBusinesses today are moving to the cloud and embracing digital. According to the Accenture Technology Vision 2019, 94 percent of executives say the pace of innovation in their organizations has accelerated over the past three years. However, most enterprise networks are built to serve the needs of another era The shift toward cloud and digital is putting networks under tremendous pressure to meet demands for greater bandwidth, performance and security Accenture surveyed 300 senior IT and business executives to discover how ready enterprise networks are to meet todays demands, and how prepared executives feel about meeting future requirements The study took into account several aspects of networking including overall capability, performance, bandwidth, security and reliability We also investigated which barriers posed the greatest threat to networks keeping pace with business demands Finally, we looked into the uptake of several critical technologies and the ease with which network initiatives were established and funding secured We conducted a blind survey with executives from companies with annual revenues in excess of US$1 billion Respondents came from 10 industries and seven countries Participants from IT included CIOs/CTOs, their direct reports (denoted in the report as CIO/CTO-1), and vice presidents (VPs) or directors of infrastructure/network The business respondents included line-of-business executive vice presidents (EVPs) and VPs 6The move to digital First, lets take a step back and look at what is driving increased demand on enterprise networks. A key factor is organizations adoption of digital technologies, ranging from IoT and analytics to solutions for offering enhanced digital customer or employee experiences.We asked business executives to share how far along their organizations were in adopting these advanced digital technologies (Figure 1) Not surprisingly, most reported that their organizations were either already using these technologies or in the process of deploying them That includes IoT/edge computing (77 percent), big data/analytics (83 percent), digital customer experience (78 percent), digital employee experience (74 percent), and virtual/augmented reality (58 percent) Figure 1: Penetration of advanced digital technologies.0102030405060Internet of Things (IoT)/Edge ComputingPercent of respondentsBig Data/AnalyticsDigital Customer ExperienceDigital Employee ExperienceVirtual/Augmented RealityNo plans to leverage at this time Planning/piloting Deploying Already using7Current network capabilitiesAs companies move to the cloud and transform into digitally-driven businesses, they need networks capable of supporting their evolution. To establish the baseline, we examined organizations current network capabilities (Figure 2).A large majority of companies reported satisfaction with their current network capabilities across all categories However, less than 40 percent said they were “very satisfied” with overall capability (36 percent) and bandwidth (38 percent). Half or less reported being “very satisfied” with their network performance (43 percent), security (50 percent) and reliability (50 percent) The findings around security revealed a couple of interesting points. A greater proportion of executives from North American companies were “very satisfied” (56 percent) than their European counterparts (44 percent) Additionally, more business executives were “very satisfied” (54 percent) compared to their IT colleagues (49 percent) Figure 2: Percentage of respondents reporting they have “very satisfied” their network capabilities today.1020304050600Overall capabilityPercent of respondentsBandwidth Performance Security ReliabilityAll Executives CIO/CTO CIO/CTO-1 Line of BusinessEVP/VP Infrastructure/Network8Overall, around 10 percent of respondents reported dissatisfaction with current network capabilitiesthat includes participants who said they were “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied.” Bandwidth was the area of greatest dissatisfaction across all respondents Interestingly, executives at a level below the CIO/CTO (shown in Figure 3 as “CIO/CTO-1”) were roughly twice as likely as other participants to be dissatisfied with networks overall capability, security and reliability However, their dissatisfaction with network performance was in line with other participants responses Additionally, business executives showed the greatest levels of dissatisfaction with bandwidth (13 percent), performance (11 percent) and reliability (11 percent) Their IT counterparts reported greater concerns over bandwidth (15 percent) and overall capability (12 percent) Figure 3: Dissatisfaction with current network capabilities by title.Overall capabilityPercent of respondentsBandwidth Performance Security ReliabilityAll Executives CIO/CTO CIO/CTO-1 EVP/VP Infrastructure/ NetworkBusiness Line EVP/VP05101520259Meeting future demandsThe rapid pace of change and growing uptake of technology exert increasing demands on enterprise networks. With this in mind, we asked executives to indicate whether they were satisfied with their networks ability to meet business demands in the next 18-24 months. The results were surprising (Figure 4) One might expect executives to have greater confidence in their ability to meet future demands compared to current ones; however, they reported similar levels of satisfaction in meeting current and future demands Only 39 percent of all executives reported being “very satisfied” with their networks ability to meet future demands. Bandwidth once again proved the area of greatest concern, with 14 percent of respondents reporting some level of dissatisfaction Other noteworthy points included:Overall capability North American companies (43 percent) were more likely to be “very satisfied” with their networks ability to meet future demands than European companies (37 percent) Security Only 43 percent of IT executives were “very satisfied” with future security capabilities, compared with 57 percent of business executives Executives one level below CIO/CTO were more “dissatisfied” (18 percent) with future security capabilities than CIOs/CTOs (12 percent), directors and VPs of infrastructure/network (8 percent) or business executives (7 percent) Companies with annual revenues exceeding US$5 billion were nearly twice as likely to be dissatisfied (13 percent) with future security capabilities than companies with annual revenues of US$1-$4 billion (7 percent) 10Figure 5 shows executives from IT and business expressed equal levels of dissatisfaction with overall future network capability (11 percent each) and future performance (9 percent each) In other areas, IT and business respondents expressed different worries IT executives reported more concern over future bandwidth (15 percent) and security capabilities (12 percent) than their business counterparts (12 percent and 7 percent respectively) Meanwhile, business executives showed greater concern over future reliability (12 percent) than their IT colleagues (9 percent) Figure 5: Dissatisfaction with network capabilities to meet business needs in the next 18-24 monthsIT vs business executives.Figure 4: Satisfaction with network capabilities to meet business needs in 18-24 months.Overall capabilityPercent of respondentsBandwidth Performance Security ReliabilityVery satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied010203040500246810121416Overall capability Bandwidth Performance Security ReliabilityPercent of respondentsIT Next 18-24 Months Business Next 18-24 Months11Readiness to support cloud and digital initiativesWith most companies actively engaged in digital, moving to the cloud, or both, we asked executives about their networks readiness to support these initiatives. Forty-three percent indicated their networks are “completely” ready to support cloud and digital, but the rest still have work to do Forty-two percent of respondents said their networks were “mostly” ready, while only 15 percent indicated they were only “somewhat” or “not at all” ready. 43%Completely ready1%42%Mostly ready,but still some work to do14%Somewhat ready, but a lot of work to be doneNot at all ready