The prevalence of video in enterprises is clear. Out of 140 network engineers, IT managers and executives who attended Interop 2012, 83% have deployed some form of video conferencing. Approximately 60% have a combination of video deployments, including desktop video, standard video conferencing and videophones — according to the sixth annual study released by Network Instruments.

While video currently consumes 29% of network bandwidth, respondents predict it will increase to 40% within the next year. In spite of this forecasting, respondents have only reserved 10% of their network capacity for video technologies, the report stated.

So where will enterprises find the bandwidth to offset the difference?

Some will turn to WAN optimization technologies to conserve bandwidth. But WAN optimization alone won’t be able to handle the already-compressed traffic of video; it will, in the very least, tighten up the bandwidth consumption of other applications. Intelligent IT pros will use a combination of video QoS techniques and WAN optimization while adding a little more bandwidth to avoid video conferencing blunders.

Yet, another solution to consider is cloud video, like Gina Narcisi reported in her recent article on putting video in the cloud: “Redirecting [video] traffic off the WAN and onto the cloud is an idea that has vendors torn. Should enterprises select a ‘best of both worlds’ approach — a hybrid video cloud environment?”

Whichever approach is chosen, companies will need to act quickly.

“The rise in video has the potential to squeeze out other critical network traffic and degrade video quality due to the lack of network capacity. Without clear monitoring metrics and tools, it will be extremely difficult for IT to assess and ensure quality user experience,” said Stephen Brown, product marketing manager for Network Instruments.

Adding WAN optimization techniques (like protocol acceleration, compression, object and byte caching and QoS) to Blue Coat’s security-as-a-service format gives enterprises a chance to connect branch offices directly to the Internet rather than backhaul Web traffic to and from the data center. By eliminating two of the problems associated with Internet connectivity — security and slowness — Blue Coat is confident that enterprises will be less anxious about connecting business-critical applications to the Internet.

“BlueCoat is helping to … remove the fundamental fear factor associated with opening branch office access to the Internet, thereby enabling faster cloud applications, lower cost networking and more direct access to cloud applications,” said Mark Urban, Blue Coat’s Senior Director of Product Marketing.

Enterprises who do have Internet connectivity between branch offices and corporate data centers need to protect corporate data via a VPN. However, doing this would take away the advantage of direct Internet access for cloud applications and for access of employees to the greater Internet, Urban explained.

“It’s not only removing the security concerns with our cloud security service but also improving the performance of those applications over the Internet,” he said.

According to Blue Coat, the MACH5 can accelerate file access and backup up to 300 times and eliminate bandwidth consumption by as much as 90%. The security-as-a-service uses the same capabilities delivered on its secure gateway appliances tied into it’s WebPulse service and allows companies to pay based on a subscription tailored to your companies needs.

In the race of vendors aiming to improve SaaS performance with cloud WAN optimization, it seems Blue Coat Systems is running neck-and-neck with vendors like Riverbed Technology (in association with Akamai) and Aryaka.

Of the WAN technology markets, several interesting observations came out of the webinar:

• Between MPLS and Ethernet, Ethernet scores consistently higher than MPLS in terms of reliability and technology.
• WAN optimization has become much more advanced and mature. Presenter Irwin Lazar said, “We’ve seen this technology explode in terms of technology.”
• Despite cloud security concerns around compliance, Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) was the highest rated of any other technology.
• Of all the categories scored, carriers received the lowest scores for customer service.

Down to specific WAN technologies, here were the results for the Nemertes 2010 PilotHouse Awards:

WAN optimization: Blue Coat Systems won in the market leader category (anyone considered to have a high amount of customers, shipments and revenue), while F5 won in the market challenger category (a less-established vendor in the market space). Riverbed fell off about 13% compared to last year, while Blue Coat improved 4%. Cisco actually improved its WAN technology but stayed flat in value. WAN vendors overall went up across the board and have improved in every area.

The top 5 vendor scores broke down as follows for the Nemertes 2010 PilotHouse Award WAN optimization category (5=excellent; 1=unacceptable):

MPLS technology: The top 5 vendors in the Nemertes 2010 PilotHouse Award MPLS category were these:

Ethernet technology: The Nemertes 2010 PilotHouse Award top 5 Ethernet providers were rated:

 The top 5 Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) carriers were:

The remaining cloud computing vendors that consisted of Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastrucutre as a Service (IaaS) only had a 6% cloud adoption rate among survey participants, so no market leaders were awarded. However, IBM was the highest rated market challenger, mostly for its high customer service rating. IBM’s technology and value were all above 4.17 points, which left IBM with a 4.20 overall rating.

To hear the full results, you can register for the free webinar on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 2:00-3:00 PM EDT: 2010 Benchmark: The Characteristics (and Technologies) of Highly Successful IT Organizations.

To bring it about, the TM Forum announced a new role for itself -– the middle-person of its new cloud services buyer’s council — this week at its Management World Americas conference in Orlando. The point of the new Enterprise Cloud Buyers Council (ECBC) is to make sure telecom providers are listening to what enterprises need in terms of public, private and hybrid cloud services and technologies. The council also plans to form focused groups for specific vertical markets like financial services or pharmaceuticals because of their unique needs.

Because the cloud is such a highly hyped issue, the TM Forum’s Eric Pullier, executive director of the ECBC, said he wants working groups to get familiar with the realities and challenges of cloud computing services so they can present a solid business model. It may come as a surprise to enterprise IT, but as the cloud model takes hold, IT groups will find themselves as one of the competitors vying to provide services to the corporation.

“One of [the] suppliers is themselves. IT groups didn’t have to be competitive before, but now there’s a new economic setup,” Pullier said.

Two heavy-hitting enterprises — Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Deutsche Bank — have signed on to represent the buyers’ side of the cloud-services equation. Commonwealth Bank moved to a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model for its company almost two years ago and has seen costs plummet to 40% of what they would have been for maintaining individual application silos for different divisions of the company. On the sellers’ side is a virtual who’s who of telecom provider, equipment vendor and solutions provider players, including AT&T, BT, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, EMC, HP, IBM, Microsoft and Nokia Siemens Networks.

In particular, the group will attempt to create common product definitions; identify security challenges, equipment interoperability and data portability issues that would prevent provider lock-in; deliver provider benchmarking tools and studies; forecast buyer demand; and delve into advanced issues like federated cloud storage and cloud service level agreements (SLAs).