LAN Research Panel: State of the Office

"State of the Office" is the first installment of Cahners In-Stat/MDR's LAN Research Panel primary research service and provides an overview of the implementation and usage of various LAN technologies today. Key findings include information on the usage of LAN telephony, firewalls, wireless LANs, videoconferencing, outsourcing, Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, as well as upgrade plans for Windows XP.

The LAN Research Panel service surveys managers and executives who have indicated they have decision-making and/or purchasing authority for networking equipment and services in their organizations and who have furthermore specifically indicated a personal involvement with LAN equipment and services, such as selection, evaluation and/or day-to-day operation. Companies and organizations surveyed range from 1-4 employee SOHO businesses to 1000+ employee organizations. Surveyed companies and organizations also range across a number of industry verticals including: telecommunications, finance, manufacturing, retail, government and education, among others. Each month, a different topic related to LAN technology, such as LAN Telephony and LAN security will be covered.

Executive Summary

Introduction

About ThePanel

Methodology

Panel Findings

Ethernet Dominates The LAN At The Desktop

…And At The Backbone

Windows 2000 Is Gaining Ground…

…But Companies In No Rush For Windows XP

Companies Do Not Trust Outsourcing

LAN Telephony Still In Minority

Videoconferencing Only At Large Companies

Small Companies Lax With Dedicated Firewalls

Wireless LANs Still Have A Ways To Go

List of Figures

Figure 1. Industry segmentation by vertical

Figure 2. Number of employees at company

Figure 3. Panelists’ involvement in LANs

Figure 4. Panelists’ scope of responsibility for LANs

Figure 5. Primary desktop LAN topology

Figure 6. Primary backbone LAN topology

Figure 7. Desktop OS

Figure 8. Plans to upgrade to Windows XP

Figure 9. Outsourcing of LAN management

Figure 10. LAN Telephony usage

Figure 11. Videoconferencing usage

Figure 12. Dedicated firewall usage

Figure 13. Wireless LAN usage