A recent survey of US organizations with over 50 employees and multiple locations, shows that legacy services (i.e., frame relay, leased line, and ATM) remain a dominant component of the WAN telecom landscape, with 62% of the organizations surveyed currently having legacy networks, reports In-Stat. But closer analysis reveals that this segment is in the process of a significant transition, the high-tech market research firm says. A majority of respondents to the survey who currently use legacy services are migrating or planning to migrate, some or all of their legacy networks to other WAN services.

"It is important to note that this does not represent an overnight, wholesale migration away from legacy services," says Steve Hansen, In-Stat analyst. "Further analysis of survey results indicates that, as a rough average, respondents are planning to migrate approximately one quarter of their legacy sites to other services over the next 12 months."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• IP and Ethernet-based WAN services provide greater capabilities to more efficiently provide "multi-point" types of implementations that also support converged applications with advanced features such as QoS.
• Operators are taking a proactive role in the migration process.
• Internet access and NGN services were most cited by survey respondents for addition/expansion in 2008.

Recent In-Stat research, The State of Network Migration: A Survey of US Firms Migrating to NGN, covers the US market for next generation business network services. It provides analysis of a survey of US organizations with over 50 employees and multiple locations about their network services use. Discussion of business and application drivers influencing network services use is included.

This research is part of In-Stats Next Gen Business Network Services service, which covers US business demand for next generation network based services with an emphasis on IP VPN, Ethernet, SaaS, business continuity/disaster recovery and managed network services. The service features four annual surveys of approximately 4,000 decision makers and end users, which provides clients with unprecedented, fact-based decision support research on demand for converged networks, QoS, VPLS, and managed services.