Companies Face Huge Bandwidth Costs During March Madness
10,000% Increase in March Madness Web Traffic Disables Corporate Network Performance
To obtain a full copy of the ScanSafe Annual Global Threat Report, please click here.
As college basketball fans around the country prepare to watch their favorite teams compete in the NCAA tournament, IT professionals should be preparing for decreased network performance. ScanSafe found that traffic to popular college basketball websites like NCAA.com and CBSSports.com increased over 10,000% during March Madness in 2008, when compared to other months.
In many cases, employees are viewing the NCAA games via streaming video at work. Aside from slowing employee productivity, viewing live March Madness games can also severely disable network performance, interfering with daily operations and business goals.
“The amount of corporate bandwidth used to view these basketball games during work hours is astonishing,” said Spencer Parker, director of product management. “Most employees don't know the bandwidth impact of these streaming sessions. Companies are literally losing millions of dollars to college basketball in March.”
Even just a few employees watching a game simultaneously can dominate a network gateway, impairing internal business traffic. Streaming video can also cause applications to run slowly and documents can take a long time to open. This is an especially concerning issue with wide area network (WAN) connectivity at branch offices.
“IT professionals need to plan and be prepared for the extra bandwidth usage during this period,” said Parker. “Having well-defined internet usage policies, particularly pertaining to streaming video, can ease the bandwidth squeeze during March Madness.”
In addition to bandwidth issues, companies should be aware of the potential for malware infection. Cyber criminals are now focused on the targeting and harvesting of sensitive data and high-traffic online events give them the perfect opportunity to increase their efforts. In 2007, the official website of Dolphin Stadium, home of Super Bowl XLI, was hacked days before the big game. Earlier this year, ScanSafe discovered malicious malware on MLB.com.
ScanSafe’s latest Annual Global Threat Report revealed that data theft trojans increased 1,159% in 2008. Malware increased 300% from January 2008 to December 2008.
To obtain a full copy of the ScanSafe Annual Global Threat Report, please click here.
