Palo Alto Networks issues ‘Application Usage and Risk Report’

I turn your attention to Palo Alto Networks’ new Application Usage and Risk Report. A spokesperson for the vendor says it analyzes the anonymized network traffic of more than 2,036 organizations worldwide between November 2011 and May 2012 “making it a data-driven analysis of network usage in the enterprise and NOT based on opinion polls or guesswork.” The report shows a sea change in the way that enterprise networks are being used, including:

• Even before the Olympics begin streaming online later this year, streaming bandwidth use at work has already quadrupled since Fall 2011.
• In a post-MegaUpload world, P2P file sharing traffic increased 700 percent, while browser-based for personal use migrated to other sites, like Putlocker.
• Viewed in terms of budget dollars, on average a quarter of every dollar spent on enterprise bandwidth is devoted to supporting either streaming media or P2P filesharing.
• Social networking shifts: Tumblr, the antithesis of Facebook and Pinterest, both gained traction in terms of frequency and volume of use despite the dominance that both Facebook and Twitter exhibit.

Some interesting material for sure. You can download the full report here.