Respondents of a global survey were learning to live with the COVID-19 pandemic and leveraging digital transformation (DX) for business resilience.
In a Dec 2021 survey of 2,425 professionals overseeing network infrastructure, security, and cloud migration in companies employing 500–1,500 people in the UK, Southern Europe, the US, Germany, India, the Middle East, Netherlands & Belgium, Eastern Europe, the Asia Pacific region (Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore), and Finland, Norway, and Sweden, remote-working, zero trust and cloudification were three areas driving digital resilience.
Of the 225 corporate organizations surveyed in the Asia Pacific region, up to 95% of respondents showed “high levels of concern” for all aspects of enterprise digital resilience. Overall levels of concern were highest around optimization of security tools to maintain a competitive advantage and deliver a superior user experience with customers accessing their ecosystem both easily and securely.
Also of concern to respondents were the internal capability to service IPv4 and migrate to IPv6 as well as balancing security and efficiency.
Key APAC findings
Increased network traffic has compounded the challenges faced by respondents, with 81% of Asia Pacific business organizations reporting an increase in network traffic volumes over the past 12 months. This increase was 39% on average compared to the global average of 47%. Also:
- 75% of APAC respondents indicated their future network environment would be cloud-based, with 33% indicating private cloud as their preferred environment. Some 48% stated that their existing cloud providers could not meet service level agreements.
- Asia Pacific respondents were more concerned than those in the other regions about the loss of data and sensitive assets in the event of a data breach due to a cyberattack. Other concerns included ransomware, potential downtime or lockdown in the event of a DDoS attack, and the impact this would have on brand and reputation. 39% of APAC respondents indicated they had already adopted a Zero Trust model in the last 12 months.
- 63% of APAC respondents indicated that all or most employees will work in the office in the long term, compared to an average of 62% across all regions surveyed.
- 52% of APAC enterprise respondents indicated they had deployed AI/ML technologies in the last 12 months. Furthermore, 45% indicated they had implemented blockchain technologies, and 42% had deployed IoT devices. Respondents had ranked metaverse technologies, AI/ML and blockchain technologies as most critical for business resilience.
According to Anthony Webb, Vice President, A10 Networks, which commissioned the survey: “As we move out of crisis mode, organizations are now focused on digital resilience, moving to the cloud and strengthening their defenses. There is a clear need to help employees work in the way they feel most comfortable. The return to the office environment may be due to the strong anxiety IT professionals have about security, the cloud and aspects of digital resilience and continuity, as well as the ability of their IT systems to cope with it.”
