There has been a decline in securities vulnerabilities to 38% in 2010: Report

The annual Network Barometer report this year highlighted its key findings as it covered 235 TLM assessments. The first was about the usually known vulnerabilities which are not effectively addressed. Secondly, the necessity for the organization is to align to the published best practices standards in order to minimize risks; and lastly, the requirement of more planning discipline in network management.

Significantly there has been a decline in securities vulnerabilities from 73% in 2009 to 38% in 2010. However, one should not forget the reported inefficient management of the lifecycle milestones of the IT assets where 35% of all network devices became technologically outdated. There are also 40.7% configuration violations per network device as per the report.

There is still a lack of understanding about the focus of the attention and resources for effective mitigation of risks along with maximizing the RoI, in spite of the fact that the organizations are now increasingly becoming aware of the need for careful management of such a mission critical infrastructure.

As per Matthew Gyde, general manager for network integration and security solutions, Datacraft Asia, “Sweating networks and IT assets beyond obsolescence, places organizations at risk which could have an impact on the overall business strategy, especially if organizations are looking for the cost efficiencies of cloud based services.”

“Networks are the backbone of an organization. Optimized networks ensure smooth business function, connectivity and provide a strong platform for taking advantage of cloud computing. While the cloud is an exciting development in the IT industry, organizations with less efficient networks may experience lags on the value of cloud based services,” elaborates Gyde.

The other additional positive findings presented by the report as stated by Gyde is: “In the past year alone, we've seen an uptake in the number of organizations wanting detailed assessment of their networks. This indicates that organizations are starting to adopt a philosophy towards network optimization. The reality is that organizations must pay more attention to their networks and adopt network planning as a tool for greater productivity,”

The Dimension Data developed a technology called the lifecycle management (TLM) assessment. It was developed in 2008, it's an IP based service which helps an organization in order to navigate and to chart all the IT assets present on the network, activating fundamental security and the proactive addressing of the issues related to the configuration and end-of-life network device.

A global network barometer report based on the readiness status of the network is published annually to state the results of these TLM assessments. Also to be in touch with the latest security issues and trends happening in the networking environments. Dimension data owns Datacraft completely as its subsidiary.