Half of all organisations reduce security controls to boost performance

Firewall settings and malware scanning were said to be the biggest culprits in reducing network performance, according to Computing's latest research

Half of all UK-based organisations reduce their security controls in order to boost network performance.

This is one of the results of Computing's latest research into the industry's use of and opinions around Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WANs).

When asked 'Do you ever reduce security controls (e.g. packet sniffing) in order to boost performance?', four per cent of the audience said 'yes'; another four per cent said 'sometimes', 14 per cent answered 'occasionally', and 28 per cent said 'rarely'. The other 50 per cent of respondents answered 'no'.

Firewall settings and malware scanning place the biggest burden on network performance, according to respondents, with Secure Socket Layer encryption (SSL) and Virtual Private Networks (VPN) just behind.

SD-WANs are a new innovation in networking, a type of hybrid network which typically blends traditional Multiprotocol Label Switching (MLPS) with managed broadband.

SD-WANs are able to support greater numbers of connected devices and applications, especially at distributed locations, and prevent congestion by increasing the bandwidth available and routing traffic more intelligently and often more cheaply as they piggyback on top of the internet for some applications.

The benefits of using SD-WANs were well recognised, with half of respondents selecting 'lower cost of ownership' as its chief advantage. A further 49 per cent selected 'increased agility', with 47 per cent chose 'better performance' (respondents could select more than one answer to this question).

When asked about the disadvantages, issues of complexity and security were top of mind, since managing two networks is harder than managing one. Traffic optimisation was less of a concern, and cost was lowest of all. So in summary, the main advantages were seen as increased flexibility and lower prices, with the price to pay being complexity and concerns over security.

This research will be presented in full at Computing's upcoming webinar 'Hybrid Networks: Securing Digital Transformation'. It will be broadcast live on 2nd August at 11am. Tune in to put your questions to the experts.