Small and medium-sized businesses should adopt high-speed broadband internet or risk being left behind, according to NETGEAR.
A study conducted by NETGEAR reveals that although all SMBs surveyed agreed they would need to deploy 10Gbps switching in their network in the future, only one third (33%) currently have a proportion of the technology in place (greater than 30% penetration).
The report also shows that the adoption of 10Gb switching is set to increase by one third in the next 18 months, with 61% of SMBs expecting to have greater than 30% penetration by the end of 2017.
The research also showed that a minority of SMBs understand the benefits that 10Gbps networks can bring, as only one third (33%) are adopting the technology to solve network performance issues when expanding premises, only one third agreed that 10Gbps would be warranted in the event of increasing video or broadcast streaming, and less than half (40%) plan to migrate to 10Gbps switching solutions in anticipation of decreasing network bottlenecks.
In all suggested use cases, less than half of SMBs considered that 10Gbps adoption was warranted.
“10 Gigabit Ethernet fiber switching has been around since 2002, but it’s only been in the last three years that adoption has really started to take off with more affordable 10 Gigabit copper switching,” said Tris Simmons, director, global product marketing, NETGEAR.
“Without doubt, copper has brought wider switch management choice for SMB networks to cope with the increasing pressures and to appeal to growing expectations.”
Among the key issues a 10Gbps connection can solve are network performance issues when expanding premises, increasing video or broadcast streaming, as well as decreasing bottlenecks, according to NETGEAR.