Industry news

Online networks 'under strain'

The internet is under stress and nearing its limitations, it has been claimed.

Research carried out by IT industry analyst Nemertes indicates traffic is increasingly moving off the public internet onto paid or private overlay networks.

Ted Ritter, research analyst with the group, said: "The internet is shape-shifting. Ultimately, access bandwidth limitations will hamper deployment of next-generation applications."

Dr Mike Jude, senior analyst at the organisation, added that requirements for multi-homing - providing multiple, separate routes to a given address - and growing mobility are placing added stress on the current internet logical infrastructure, which could "fracture back into groups of networks".

The report also concluded the internet is rapidly running out of addresses to assign to new networks and is likely to be exhausted in this regard by 2012.

Earlier this week, technology solutions provider Logicalis claimed the UK IT industry should work together so firms can make the changes to network management necessary to survive the current economic turmoil.