“Office 365 implementations delayed by excessive network latency.

Organizations are seeing that Office 365 implementations are significantly delayed by gateway appliance upgrades and excessive network latency. This is the result of a survey carried out by Zscaler among 250 European and American organisations that have rolled out Microsoft’s suite.

In the 2019 Office 365 Migration Survey report, Zscaler shares the results of its research to provide insight into the problems that organizations experience with the suite. These results show, among other things, that gateway appliance upgrades and network latency pose challenges.

For example, 41 percent of organisations indicated that overcrowding of the network has a major impact on user experiences. For example, 63 percent of those surveyed stated that the collaboration in Office 365 suffers from the network problems they experience.

Nearly half – 49 percent – say they are looking at possibilities to solve network problems. These are direct Internet connections, which should reduce overcrowding and prevent latency as a result of redirecting Internet traffic. Microsoft therefore recommends such direct internet connections in its connectivity guidance. These connections should optimize the connection to cloud services.

Legacy

According to 40 percent of respondents, the biggest delay in implementing Office 365 is due to the need to upgrade the gateway appliances. According to Punit Minocha, SVP of Business and Corporate Development at Zscaler, many organizations also make the mistake of implementing the suite on top of existing legacy networks. According to him, this leads to a poor user experience and failing connections.

“Modern cloud applications require modern cloud architectures,” says Minocha. “Office 365 is designed to be placed as close to the user as possible, but traditional networks cannot offer the same advantage.”

Finally, the study provides insight into the three main reasons for migrating to Microsoft’s suite. The main reason is that IT complexity is reduced, according to 60 percent of the respondents. 52 percent said they wanted to increase application reliability, 50 percent said they wanted to reduce costs.