A recent study conducted by the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) for InfoBlox has revealed that European organizations exhibit less sophisticated networking practices to facilitate hybrid and multicloud frameworks compared to organizations in other regions.
The study surveyed 1,000 IT security and networking managers, with 300 respondents from Europe, to evaluate network maturity. This assessment focused on whether organizations have formed cross-functional cloud platform teams that integrate network, security, and cloud operations professionals.
In terms of technological maturity, the ESG research examined automation levels in network and security management, the adoption of enterprise-grade, cloud-neutral networking solutions, and the effectiveness of the organization’s defense-in-depth strategy. The findings indicate a notable disparity in maturity levels, highlighting that European organizations are more likely to belong to the least mature cohort—55% in Europe compared to 44% globally—suggesting a relative lack of development in hybrid and multicloud capabilities.
Additionally, ESG evaluated the platform engineering capabilities of organizations. Such teams typically enhance standardization and automation in cloud operations. ESG posits that an effective platform engineering team should prioritize implementing best practices for security, network configurations, compliance, and performance optimization uniformly across the organization. This leads to more reliable cloud environments and alleviates the pressure on product and development teams, allowing them to focus on delivering new features and innovations.
The survey indicated that fewer European organizations currently utilize platform engineers compared to their global peers (66% versus 74%). However, there is a projected increase in the creation of these roles within the next year, with 29% of European organizations planning to hire platform engineers, compared to 22% globally, suggesting a potential catch-up with the global standard.
ESG’s findings also point to a less integrated approach among European organizations regarding the convergence of networking and security tools. The survey revealed that European organizations were 44% more inclined to adopt a fully siloed approach (26% vs. 18%) than their counterparts in other regions.
Discussing the findings, Frank Ruge, senior vice-president for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at InfoBlox, noted, “The research highlights that many companies in Europe are not maximizing their potential. It’s time for them to catch up to their global peers. While the gap is significant in areas such as building platform teams, merging cloud networking and security tools, and leveraging network core services for better asset management and security, it is not insurmountable.”
The report also underscores the importance of domain name system (DNS) security, which safeguards internal users from accessing harmful websites. The ESG survey found that European organizations are less likely to utilize DNS extensively for cloud asset discovery and visibility.
“DNS-based discovery is vital for identifying unauthorized or rogue devices that could present security threats, allowing for faster isolation and remediation. It also enhances traffic and user behavior monitoring, aiding in the detection of suspicious activities, such as lateral movement by attackers within the network,” according to ESG.
ESG advocates that security teams in Europe should fully embrace DNS as a crucial technology to optimize network management and security operations.