Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 8, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The renowned European market research and analysis provider Quocirca (www.quocirca.com) was commissioned to conduct the study. A total of 400 IT managers and decision-makers from companies of widely varying sizes in the consumer goods, IT and communications technologies, manufacturing and retail sectors were surveyed.
It shows that companies place the highest demands on the performance and availability of their applications operated on the Internet: 58 percent of respondents expect a response time of no more than three seconds, while 90 percent consider a response time of less than five seconds acceptable. A total of 84 percent expect availability of web-based applications of more than 99 percent.
The study also makes clear that more and more European companies are using the Internet as a cost-effective instrument to provide their geographically widely distributed users with business-critical, web-based applications, including, for example, applications for portals, content management, supply chain management, customer relationship management and sales force automation. However, since the public Internet was not originally conceived as an enterprise platform, it is often unable to meet today’s demands for reliable and fast access to business applications. This results in poor user acceptance and higher support costs – therefore, remedying long latency times and poor availability is at the top of the IT priority list across Europe. Conversely, optimized performance and increased reliability of web-based applications bring about higher acceptance, productivity and greater user satisfaction. This in turn leads to better collaboration between geographically distributed branches and more efficient supply chain processes.
The problems cited, such as long latency times and high packet loss, are caused during the transmission of data in the so-called “Middle Mile” of the Internet. The inefficient delivery of applications can have a negative effect on revenue and is especially costly in the IT area when it comes to optimizing web applications while at the same time consolidating the company’s own data center.
Other important results of the study:
· European companies are relying more and more on web-enabled applications as a cost-effective way of providing business-critical applications. 42 percent of respondents have already introduced web-based applications.
· 84 percent of survey participants whose companies implemented a managed service solution to increase performance and availability say they are very satisfied with the improvement achieved.
Bob Tarzey, Research Director at Quocirca, explains: “Our study makes clear that many European companies are making their business applications web-enabled, on the one hand to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and on the other hand to also enable external users and employees to have remote access. Nevertheless, the Internet’s performance problems harbor the risk that efforts to ensure the best possible end-user experience come to nothing. That is why the reliability and performance of web-based applications are right at the top of the IT priority list of many European companies that are seeking a web-based model for their business processes and applications.”
“The current study shows that European companies are working emphatically on the web capability of their business processes and applications,” adds David Keane, Director of International Application Performance Solutions (APS) at Akamai. “As a solution provider that addresses precisely the problems of latency and packet loss on the ‘Middle Mile,’ we are convinced that only the efficient delivery of applications and content over the Internet as a managed service can ensure the desired application performance. Solutions such as the Akamai Web Application Accelerator service can help companies achieve corresponding success in the European and international market.”
The Web Application Accelerator service is based on the globally distributed Akamai platform with more than 28,000 servers, distributed across more than 900 networks in around 70 countries. The highly specialized edge servers are used here: Through their global distribution, they are located both close to the customer’s own corporate infrastructure and close to the end user. The edge servers use the Akamai protocol to ensure LAN-like performance and availability of web applications delivered over the Internet around the globe. In this way, companies can centralize their infrastructure without having to make compromises in the performance and availability of their applications – regardless of whether these are provided within one country or worldwide. Changes to web applications, servers and clients are not necessary, so this approach is virtually risk-free and characterized by an unrivaled short time-to-value.
Further links:
- Study