Over 30% of IT managers, buyers and CIOs are failing to consider the impact of new technology on their networks before buying, even though 74% claim the network is central to their IT strategy, according to new research from Computacenter.
According to the services-led reseller this attitude risks downtime, poor performance levels and raises the spectre of serious security breaches.
Computacenter found worrying misconceptions around the introduction of virtualisation, with two thirds of respondents believing the technology made their networks more secure, when frequently the opposite was the case.
The majority went so far as to say that the networking was hampering virtualisation efforts, with 88% claiming it directly caused network performance issues. 68% claimed they had underestimated the number of network issues arising from virtualisation.
"It is common to see a lack of proactive optimisation directed towards the network, particularly in difficult times when decision makers have other challenges," said Computacenter networking and security practice leader Colin Williams.
"The inherent problem with the network is that no-one notices it until it goes wrong so in many cases it has become a victim of its own reliability," he added.
The survey also found that only a fifth of IT decision makers said there were internal political struggles around virtualisation, which Williams said was surprising considering virtualisation deployments were usually managed by server teams, but ended up affecting network teams.
Speaking to MicroScope this week, Mike Augustine, head of northern European sales for switching vendor Force10 said that the potential for internal political struggles was growing as the vendor community shuffles for position in the datacentre.
"It's a delicate balance, nobody wants to rock the boat, but it results in a cultural challenge if one vendor comes to dominate. Ultimately it's disruptive for the CIO," he warns.
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