Focusing on applications: So what?

Network World recently discussed in their WAN Newsletter a survey that indicated the vast majority of IT organizations have taken the time and effort it takes to identify a small set of applications that are business-critical.

Network World also commented:

We believe that an effective Network Operations Center (NOC) is critical to the success of the IT organization. We also believe, however, that the NOC needs to evolve to where its focus is a bit less on the network and a bit more on applications. With that thought in mind, the survey respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement that their organization had redesigned and/or restructured their NOC to focus on ensuring acceptable application performance. Over half of the survey respondents either agreed, or agreed strongly with that statement.

Not surprisingly more network vendors are increasingly looking more wholistically at applications rather than network components. A quick trip to sites like Blue Coat Systems, F5, and Citrix will verify this trend towards advertising and developming messages and solutions around application delivery.