Businesses optimistic over additional bandwidth

Citrix survey shows businesses are expecting bandwidth improvements soon

With Seacom having already gone live, South African businesses are waiting with bated breath for the rest of the planned fibre optic connections to come to fruition, expecting the additional bandwidth to benefit their business.

This is according to the results of a survey conducted by Citrix Systems at the company’s Solutions Seminar events held in Cape Town and Johannesburg at the end of July 2009.

Aggregating the findings from both cities, the survey indicates that 79 percent of respondents expect a boost in their business as a result of the increased bandwidth. The group was not overly optimistic though, with 74 percent declaring that they only expect benefits to be realised after twelve months.

When asked what the envisioned fibre optic cables would bring for the rest of South Africa, 50 percent cited an increase in Internet penetration while 47 percent predict a drop in telecommunications prices.

Gauging the impact on the virtualisation market, the survey asked if an increase in bandwidth would drive the adoption of virtualisation technologies within the respondents’ organisations. The answer was a yes from 79 percent of the respondents, with a positive impact expected on all areas of virtualisation including server, application and desktop virtualisation.

Commenting on the response, Nick Keene, country manager at Citrix Systems South Africa, said this is no surprise as an abundance of bandwidth provides the ability to deliver feature-rich applications through to end users. This ensures a like-for-like experience, as if the application was stored locally, and drives the adoption of applications and virtualisation solutions.