- Three-quarters of companies with a workforce of more than 2,500 are planning to upgrade their connectivity solutions for remote working and ERP applications within the next two years
- 80% of enterprises are experiencing an increase in performance issues with remote-working tools, like Microsoft 365
- 50% of corporate IT managers have concerns about confidential information being exposed to security threats on the public Internet
Frankfurt/New York, 31 August 2021: DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange operator, has commissioned a survey with the German market research company Research in Action to analyze how companies’ digital transformation will continue to evolve in the near future. The study included 200 enterprises each from Germany and the United States of America with a workforce of more than 2,500 staff and a minimum annual revenue of 250 million Euro. The findings show that, having conquered the initial set of challenges related to working from home triggered by Covid-19, companies are now beginning the further task of integrating remote working effectively into their overall IT strategy for the long term. They now seek to equip themselves with the best and most secure performance of their IT systems for their ongoing digitalization. In their current set-up, over 50% of the managers surveyed in the areas of corporate IT, IT operations, and IT infrastructure have concerns about confidential information being exposed to security threats (57.5%), as well as lacking insight into where critical data is being routed over the public Internet (51.3%).
In recent months, close to 80% (78.3%) of these enterprises have experienced an increase in support tickets for performance issues relating to the enterprise-grade software packages provided through Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Dynamics. Of these, almost 100% of companies with 2,500-5,000 employees (99.4%) and over 10,000 employees (98.1%) surveyed have been feeling the impact – whereas only half of the companies with 5,000-10,000 employees have registered issues (52.5%).
Companies need to control the path of their critical data and digital assets
Overall, close to three quarters (74%) of the companies surveyed plan to purchase a new service for interconnecting with the Microsoft Software as a Service cloud within the next two years. Their priorities vary depending on the sector: Close to 30% of Healthcare & Social Assistance (27.8%) companies and nearly a quarter of Manufacturing & Automotive (23%) and Travel/Transport/Logistics (23.6) companies want a connection which is separated from the public Internet, offering their networks protection from DDoS attacks and malicious third-parties, as well as ensuring the resilience and directness of the connection. Close to 30% of the Travel, Transport, and Logistics (27.6) sector profess an interest in a high-performance, low-latency, redundant interconnection service to enable fast response times for tasks such as real-time tracking, fleet management, and tourism services.
“Clearly, companies are taking decisive action on the digitalization of their internal processes and are searching for better ways of connecting to important enterprise software and services,” says Mareike Jacobshagen, Head of Global Business Partner Program at DE-CIX. “The key factors for improving performance and security are reducing latency by having the shortest paths between the application and the user, increasing resilience and redundancy to minimize outages, and using a secure connection directly to the application source, bypassing the public Internet. This gives them better control over the pathways of their critical data and helps them protect their digital assets. As enterprises take the next steps in becoming more digital – a process that was already underway before the Covid-19 pandemic, but which has been accelerated by it – they need first to future-proof their connectivity. This is where DE-CIX and our partners can support them.”