The  Federal  Network  Visibility  Crisis:  

Get  to  Know  Your  Apps  

A  WHITE  PAPER  PRESENTED  BY:  

MAY  2015  

PREPARED  BY  

MARKET  CONNECTIONS,  INC.  11350  RANDOM  HILLS  ROAD,  SUITE  800  |  FAIRFAX,  VA  22030 T703.378.2025  |  WWW.MARKETCONNECTIONSINC.COM  

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THE  FEDERAL  NETWORK  VISIBILITY  CRISIS:  GET  TO  KNOW  YOUR  APPS  

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THE  FEDERAL  NETWORK  VISIBILITY  CRISIS    

Get  to  Know  Your  Apps   Applications  have  never  been  more  important  to  the  Federal  Government—agencies  rely  on   applications  such  as  email,  financial  tools,  ERP  systems  and  collaboration  platforms  to  deliver   critical  citizen  services  and  mission  support  to  warfighters  on  the  battlefield.  As  agencies  move   to  the  cloud  and  consolidate  their  IT  resources,  data  is  traveling  farther  distances  across  agency   networks  to  reach  both  defense  and  civilian  workers  who  rely  on  those  applications  and   information  to  do  their  jobs.  That  is  why  in  today’s  IT  environment,  network  visibility  has  never   been  more  critical,  as  it  is  the  only  way  to  quickly  identify  and  fix  application  performance   issues.  Yet  many  federal  IT  leaders  lack  the  financial,  human  and  technological  resources  to  do   so.    

THE  CHALLENGE  OF  COMPLEX  NETWORK  ENVIRONMENTS   “Applications  have  never   been  more  critical  to   agency  productivity.  Yet  as   networks  become  more   complex,  if  agencies  don’t   have  insight  into   application  performance,   it  takes  too  long  to  fix   issues  and  impacts   workers’  ability  to  use   their  applications.”   SEAN  APPLEGATE   DIRECTOR,  TECHNOLOGY   STRATEGY  &  ADVANCED   SOLUTIONS   RIVERBED  

 

               From  on-­‐premise  networks  to  broadly  distributed  enterprises  to  public  clouds,  the   nature  of  the  federal  agency  network  environment  is  changing.  A  recent  study1  found   that  about  one-­‐third  of  agencies  are  using  or  planning  to  use  cloud  services  and  another   one-­‐third  are  researching  or  considering  moving  to  cloud  services.  At  the  same  time,  as   part  of  the  Federal  Data  Center  Consolidation  Initiative  (FDCCI),  agencies  are   consolidating  IT  resources  to  increase  efficiencies  and  reduce  costs.     This  means  that  while  applications  have  become  more  mission-­‐critical,  the  network   paths  they  need  to  travel  have  become  more  complex.  Research  from  IDC  reveals  that   the  average  hourly  cost  of  an  infrastructure  failure  for  a  large  organization  is  $100,000   per  hour,  and  the  average  cost  of  a  critical  application  failure  per  hour  is  $500,000  to  $1   million.  Because  visibility  is  the  only  way  to  identify  and  fix  infrastructure  failures  and   performance  in  a  timely  manner—a  challenge  that  directly  impacts  performance  and   budgets—agencies  need  to  make  sure  they  have  visibility  into  the  new  network  paths,   and  roadblocks  their  applications  must  navigate.   Yet  many  federal  IT  executives  lack  the  manpower,  budget  and  tools  necessary  to  find  and   fix  performance  issues  quickly  and  efficiently,  leading  to  lost  productivity  and  network   vulnerabilities.  Without  the  right  tools  to  monitor  network  and  application  performance,   federal  IT  professionals  cannot  pinpoint  latency  and  availability  problems  that  directly   impact  agency  or  mission  effectiveness.  This  could  mean  supply  chain  delays  of  materiel  for   warfighters  in  the  field  or  lack  of  access  to  critical  defense  and  global  security  applications.   Latency  and  performance  issues  could  stymie  access  to  data  essential  to  federal  law   enforcement,  when  up-­‐to-­‐the  minute  information  can  mean  the  difference  between   protecting  public  safety  or  losing  a  crucial  lead.  Performance  issues  and  lack  of  visibility  can   also  jeopardize  citizen  services,  affecting  the  delivery  of  necessary  support  to  vulnerable   populations.      

1

 Research  by  Market  Connections,  Inc.,  on  behalf  of  General  Dynamics  Information  Technology,  August   2014.  

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THE  FEDERAL  NETWORK  VISIBILITY  CRISIS:  GET  TO  KNOW  YOUR  APPS  

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If  critical  applications  like  email,  collaboration,  procurement,  customer  relationship   management  (CRM)  and  project  management  tools  are  down,  and  take  hours  or  days  to  fix,   agencies  face  lost  productivity, lower  workforce  morale,  delays  in  delivering  critical  citizen   services  and  wasted  taxpayer  dollars.  Agencies  are  left  to  answer  some  critical  questions:   • “Agencies  are  moving   toward  location-­‐ independent  IT   environments,  but  they   haven’t  prepared  for  what   happens  when  they  reach   their  destination.  This  is   creating  a  network   visibility  crisis  that  will   significantly  impact   application  performance  if   it’s  not  addressed.”   SEAN  APPLEGATE   DIRECTOR,  TECHNOLOGY   STRATEGY  &  ADVANCED   SOLUTIONS   RIVERBED  

• •

Does  an  IT  manager  have  the  ability  to “see”  and  manage  everything  on  a  network infrastructure  that  is  globally  distributed  across  multiple  locations?   Are  there  enough resources  necessary  to  identify  and  fix  performance  problems   quickly  and  efficiently?   How  can network  performance  concerns  be  addressed  within  the  confines  of   budgetary  and  staff  restrictions  in  order  to  detect  and  address  issues  quickly  for  all   users  across  distributed  organizations?

To  answer  these  questions,  Riverbed  commissioned  leading  government  market   research  firm  Market  Connections,  Inc.  to  determine  in  what  way  federal  IT  decision   makers  are  using  network  and  application  management  tools,  the  challenges  they  face, and  the  features  that  best  help  them  address  those  concerns.   Network  complexity,  response  time  and  funding  rose  to  the  top  as  key  challenges  in  the   federal  network  environment: •



• •

Nearly  half  of  poll  respondents  (45%)  cited  increasing  network  complexity  as  the   greatest  federal  network  management  challenge—mission-­‐critical  IT  resources  are   traveling  longer  and  more  complex  paths  to  reach  the  federal  workers  that  rely   upon  them  every  day.  Those  who  rate  their  ability  to  monitor  the  network  as   excellent  see  this  complexity  as  a  bigger  concern  (63%)  than  those  who  do  not.     Two-­‐thirds of  respondents (66%) say they  have  some  tools  and  procedures  in  place   to  monitor  and  troubleshoot  network  performance,  and  some  of  those  tools  may   need  updating; while  less  than  one-­‐third  (30%)  say their  ability  to  monitor  network   performance  is  excellent.   Slightly  more  than one-­‐quarter  (27%)  are  unable  to  find  the  root  cause of  network   performance  issues  quickly.     Almost  half  (44%)  report  insufficient  funding  to  procure  the  solutions  to  address   these  challenges.    

As  federal  agencies  continue  on  their  journey  to  the  cloud,  the  vision  of  location-­‐ independent  networking—in  which,  regardless  of  where  an  application  lives,  end-­‐users   receive  a  seamless  experience—is  closer  to  becoming  a  universal  reality.  However,   agencies  need  to  prepare  for  what  arriving  at  that  destination  means  in  terms  of   performance  and  productivity.  With  two-­‐thirds  of  government  moving  to  the  cloud,   © 2015   MA RKET  CONNECTIONS   I NC .   |   W W W . M A R KE TC O NNE C TI O NS I NC . C O M   |   7 0 3 . 3 7 8 . 2 0 2 5  

   

THE  FEDERAL  NETWORK  VISIBILITY  CRISIS:  GET  TO  KNOW  YOUR  APPS  

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more  bandwidth  will  not  solve  problems  of  performance,  latency  and  lack  of  control.  In   a  distributed  environment,  network  visibility  is  critical  to  monitoring  application   performance,  identifying  problems  and  quickly  resolving  latency.    

*From  Network  Performance  PulsePoll™  by  Market  Connections,  Inc.,  May  2015  

THE RESPONSE  TIME ISSUE One  of the  most  critical  aspects  of  managing  emerging  federal  network  environments is   the  ability  to  quickly  identify  and  manage  problems  that  arise.  With  users  sometimes   hundreds of miles  away  from  the  data  center,  visibility  into  application  performance  is   absolutely  critical,  yet  more  than  half  (51%)  of  respondents  said  it  takes  a  day  or  more   to  detect  and  fix application  performance  issues.  Only  17% of  respondents are  able  to address  network  outages  within  minutes—meaning  it  could  take  hours  to  bring   networks back  up when  problems  arise!

*From  “Realizing  Business  Value  and  ROI  with  Application-­‐Aware  Network  Performance  Management,”  IDC,  2012  

 

These  slow  response  times  have  a  significant  impact  on  the  agency’s  budget  and  ability   to  execute  on  the  mission.  For  example,  assuming  an  average  wage  of  $32.30/hour2,  an   8-­‐hour  network  outage  at  an  agency  with  5,000  employees  affected  would  cost  the   agency  nearly  $1.3  million  in  salaries  alone,  which  does  not  include  the  dramatic   negative  impact  on  delivery  of  citizen  and  constituent  services.        

2

 Source:  CBO  Comparing  Compensation  for  Federal  and  Private-­‐Sector  Employees,  Jan  2012   http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/01-­‐30-­‐FedPay.pdf  

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THE  FEDERAL  NETWORK  VISIBILITY  CRISIS:  GET  TO  KNOW  YOUR  APPS  

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Slightly  more  than  one-­‐third  (36%)  of  respondents  see  improved  employee  productivity   as  a  benefit  of  application  management  tools;  but  given  how  important  productivity  is   to  achieving  the  agency  mission,  government  networking  professionals  should  be  more   concerned  about  this.  Monitoring  tools  deliver  results  in  the  form  of  productivity  and   faster  detection  and  response  times.  

ACHIEVE  VISIBILITY  INTO  APPLICATION  PERFORMANCE   “The  lack  of  network   visibility  has  a  direct   impact  on  an  agency’s   ability  to  serve  its   constituents.  We  live  in  a   world  where  response   times  of  more  than  a  few   minutes  are  not   acceptable—and  not   necessary.”   SEAN  APPLEGATE DIRECTOR,  TECHNOLOGY   STRATEGY  &  ADVANCED   SOLUTIONS   RIVERBED  

Networks  need  to  perform  quickly  and  seamlessly  in  order  to  fulfill  mission   requirements.  Performance  monitoring  tools  provide  the  broadest,  most   comprehensive  view  into  network  activity,  helping  to  ensure  fast  performance,  high   security  and  rapid  recovery.     More  than  two-­‐thirds  (68%)  of  respondents  see  improved  network  reliability  as  a  key   value  of  monitoring  tools  and  more  than  three-­‐quarters  (77%)  of  respondents  said   automated  investigation  and  diagnosis  is  an  important  feature  in  a  network  monitoring   solution.  With  visibility  across  the  entire  network  and  its  applications,  IT  departments   can  identify  and  fix  problems  in  minutes—before  end  users  notice,  and  before   productivity  and  citizen  services  suffer.   Network  visibility  requires  the  ability  to  proactively  monitor  both  network  and   application  performance  metrics—because  if  metrics  are  not  being  monitored   proactively,  an  agency  can’t  know  when  performance  is  suffering  or  an  application  is   down.  For  example,  one  company  reported  that  by  using  network  visibility  tools,  they   saved  $12,047  per  100  users  per  year.  In  an  agency  with  5,000  users,  this  adds  up  to   savings  of  more  than  $600,000  per  year.3  

MOST  IMPORTANT  FEATURES     OF  NETWORK  MONITORING  SOLUTIONS  

 

79%  

Capacity  Planning  

77%  

Automated  Investigation  

65%  

Application-­‐aware  Visibility  

58%  

Predictive  Modeling  

In  addition  to  ensuring  applications  are  always  running,   these  tools  can  detect  abnormalities  in  network  packets   that  could  impact  security,  making  these  tools  extremely   valuable  when  paired  with  complementary  cybersecurity   solutions.     Respondents  see  a  host  of  other  benefits  of  monitoring   tools,  including  improved  reliability,  early  detection  of   problems,  and  improved  speed.   Application-­‐aware  visibility—which  spans  the  entire   process  of  application  discovery,  end-­‐to-­‐end   performance  monitoring  and  deep  packet-­‐level  recording   and  analysis—is  an  important  feature  of  network   monitoring  tools,  and  65%  of  respondents  see  it  as  a   benefit!    

Interestingly,  given  how  many  applications  are  moving  to  the  cloud,  more  than  half  of   respondents  (54%)  said  that  Software  as  a  Service  (SAAS)/cloud  visibility  was  not  an   3

 Lucinda  Borovick,  Randy  Perry,  Nancy  Selig.  “Realizing  Business  Value  and  ROI  with  Application-­‐Aware   Network  Performance  Management.”  IDC.  July  2012.       © 2015   MA RKET  CONNECTIONS   I NC .   |   W W W . M A R KE TC O NNE C TI O NS I NC . C O M   |   7 0 3 . 3 7 8 . 2 0 2 5  

   

THE  FEDERAL  NETWORK  VISIBILITY  CRISIS:  GET  TO  KNOW  YOUR  APPS  

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important  feature  in  a  network  monitoring  solution.  This  speaks  to  the  notion  that   agencies  have  been  so  focused  on  the  journey  to  the  cloud,  they  are  not  yet  thinking   about  how  to  maximize  application  performance  when  they  arrive  there.   When  it  comes  to  finding  a  network  management  solution,  there  are  also  several   features  respondents  consider  important:     • • • •

Capacity  planning  –  79%   Automated  investigation  –  77%   Application-­‐aware  visibility  –  65%   Predictive  modeling  –  58%  

It  is  no  surprise  these  features  rate  highly,  as  all  increase  network  visibility  and  help   manage  all  aspects  of  IT  consolidation  and  planning.  

CONCLUSIONS Application  and  network  visibility  are essential  to  federal  agency  productivity  and   mission  success.     “Enhanced  network  visibility  helped  one  of  our  customers  see  a  519%  return  on   investment—an  average $5.1  million in  savings  per  year,”  said  Sean  Applegate,  Riverbed   Director,  Technology  Strategy  &  Advanced  Solutions.  “The  application  performance  tool   reduced network  and  application  downtime  by  67%, thus restoring  73  hours  of   productive  time  to  each  user  and  saving  the  customer  $26,057  annually  per  100  users.”   With  today’s  globally  distributed  federal  workforce,  network  visibility  is  critical  to   monitoring  performance,  identifying  and  quickly  fixing  problems. Application  and   network  performance  monitoring  tools  are  essential  to  that  visibility.   Using  these  tools  is  a  critical  step  toward  managing  the  complex  network  environment   and  ensuring  migrations  to  the  cloud  are  transformative  and  beneficial  experiences  for   the  agency,  the  end  users  and,  ultimately,  constituents.     © 2015   MA RKET  CONNECTIONS   I NC .   |   W W W . M A R KE TC O NNE C TI O NS I NC . C O M   |   7 0 3 . 3 7 8 . 2 0 2 5  

   

THE  FEDERAL  NETWORK  VISIBILITY  CRISIS:  GET  TO  KNOW  YOUR  APPS  

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ABOUT  THE  STUDY   Riverbed  commissioned  Market  Connections,  Inc.  to  poll  federal  IT  managers   knowledgeable  about  their  agency’s  network  management  to  determine  which  types  of   applications  federal  agencies  are  using  to  manage  their  networks,  and  the  challenges   they  face  in  this  increasingly  complex  environment.  Of  the  100  respondents,  35%  were   from  defense  agencies  and  65%  from  civilian  agencies.  More  than  half  (57%)  are  on  a   team  that  makes  decisions  regarding  network  operations  and  management  solutions,   49%  evaluate  or  recommend  firms  offering  network  operations  and  management   solutions,  45%  develop  technical  requirements  for  network  operations  and   management  solutions  and  17%  make  the  final  decision  regarding  network  operations   and  management  solutions  or  contractors.      

ABOUT  RIVERBED     Riverbed®,  at  more  than  $1  billion  in  annual  revenue,  is  the  leader  in  Application   Performance  Infrastructure,  delivering  the  most  complete  platform  for  Location-­‐ Independent  Computing.  Location-­‐Independent  Computing  turns  location  and  distance   into  a  competitive  advantage  by  allowing  IT  to  have  the  flexibility  to  host  applications   and  data  in  the  most  optimal  locations  while  ensuring  applications  perform  as  expected,   data  is  always  available  when  needed,  and  performance  issues  are  detected  and  fixed   before  end  users  notice.  Riverbed’s  25,000+  customers  include  97%  of  both  the  Fortune   100  and  the  Forbes  Global  100.  Learn  more  at  www.riverbed.com.  

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