InformationWeek

June 14, 1999

Upward Spiral: Network Bandwidth And Usage

By Mary E. Thyfault

oing business today more often than not means doing business over a network. Network managers report that business bandwidth usage and demand are on an intertwined upward spiral: As bandwidth becomes more available and cheaper, users are demanding more--and IT executives must plan accordingly.

"Bandwidth usage is increasing as businesses want to move more and more information from where it's being processed to where it's being used," says Douglas Fields, VP of worldwide telecommunications for United Parcel Service. An InformationWeek Research Priorities study released this week shows that 81% of CIOs say increasing network bandwidth is a top technology priority, trailing only year 2000 projects.

What's devouring all this bandwidth? "There's nothing magic about it--it's the huge amount of E-mail," says Bard Haerland, VP of telecommunications for Unisys Corp. in Blue Bell, Pa. Compounding the problem is the lack of control over E-mail formats, says Haerland, including file attachments, document messaging, and even huge databases. Unisys has been close to doubling the bandwidth capacity of its network year after year, says Haerland.

In fact, E-mail is the No. 1 consumer of bandwidth, according to a recent InformationWeek Research survey of 211 IT managers (www.internetwk.com/numbers/numbers052699.htm). Web browsing by internal users, general volume increases, and new core business applications followed close behind.

Network managers are attacking the bandwidth crunch in two ways. They are developing bigger network pipes. Unisys, for example, is deploying a nationwide asynchronous transfer mode network. They're also trying to manage usage. Unisys has started an internal campaign to help keep users from misusing bandwidth, sending out notices restricting personal use of the Internet, for example. "We see an immediate dip [in usage] when we do this," says Haerland. "Then we're left with underlying business needs."

Return to main story, "More Projects, Less Time."