Over 40% of companies in Asia-Pacific provide their branch offices with direct Internet access, rather than "backhaul" the Internet traffic across a wide area network (WAN) to a centralized Internet gateway in the headquarters or regional data center"” this is one of the findings of a market study on networking trends among APAC companies conducted by network solutions provider, Blue Coat Systems, Inc.
The study also cites that nearly 85% of companies want the same level of Internet protection and control in branch as in headquarters or data center. Over 1,100 companies participated in the survey, which was conducted online by Blue Coat in August 2008. The survey explored topics regarding branch office Internet access, work force mobilization and consolidation of datacenters. Respondents to the survey included IT professionals from companies in Australia; Bangladesh; Greater China; India; Indonesia; Malaysia; New Zealand; Pakistan; Philippines; Singapore; Sri Lanka; South Korea; Taiwan; Thailand; Vietnam; and Japan.
According to the study, although a significant number of companies still backhaul branch office Internet traffic through hundreds or thousands of miles to a remote data center or headquarters over private or semi-private data lines, a growing number of companies have established local Internet service at the branch and receive direct Internet access there. Some companies have local Internet access, but route all corporate traffic directly to headquarters or a data center using a site-to-site VPN, which serves as the WAN link, and do not allow access to the Web in the local branch office.
"We see a significant number of companies that either have branch offices with direct Internet access or are in the process of migrating to such access, rather than relying on backhauling that traffic to a centralized access point across the WAN, "Companies are rejecting the high cost and inefficiencies of backhauling Internet traffic. With Blue Coat appliances, companies can gain "Ëœdirect-to-the-net' branch office access while maintaining consistent, centrally-managed security and control by using the same appliance that provides WAN optimization. We enable companies to migrate away from backhauling to direct Internet connections in the branch," said Matt Young, vice president, Asia Pacific, Blue Coat Systems.