A study released by Network General shows a significant uptake of unified communications, to the extent that its use is hampering the function of enterprise applications and other network traffic. The survey polled 576 Network General customers worldwide.

Seventy-five percent of respondents estimated that the total network bandwidth consumption of unified messaging services, such as instant messaging, VoIP, and unified messaging, accounted for 25 percent of the respondents' network traffic over the past three months. Seventy percent of respondents had deployed VoIP, and forty percent made significant use of voice, video and web conferencing. Less than ten percent of respondents used no form of unified communications on their networks.

James Messer, Network General's Director of Technical Marketing, attributes the growth in unified communications to the increasing mobility of workers, and the need to maintain contact with business associates, co-workers and prospective customers, regardless of whether the employee is in the office or not.

The survey underscores the fact that adoption of unified communications strategies must be accompanied by careful network planning, management and expansion. Although a single VoIP call may occupy a few hundred K of bandwidth, managers and directors must realize that the unified communications phenomenon is more than a simple one-to-one replacement for traditional telephony, or an inexpensive way to save money on long-distance calling. Maintaining a constant network presence means that employees are constantly using bandwidth, and this usage must be accounted for over-and-above typical network usage.

As unified communications applications add functions, they most likely consume more bandwidth. If an application is broadly distributed to an organization, the need for bandwidth will increase substantially. In addition to monitoring the usage of WAN links, corporate LANs must be monitored and upgraded to accommodate the growing demand for network access. A good rule of thumb to follow when evaluating and planning for bandwidth needs is that bandwidth consumption will double every 18 months. If you haven't upgraded your connection lately, and you plan to adopt unified communications, (or have already done so), you should plan to upgrade your connection to the Internet.