The Pros and Cons of Video in the Workplace

There’s no doubt that video is the fastest rising class of traffic on the Internet. What is in doubt is the business value of all that traffic. Video traffic consumes a huge amount of bandwidth that can significantly affect the performance of corporate applications all across the network.

A new survey of over 200 people working at different companies, conducted by the market research firm Harris Interactive on behalf of Blue Coat Networks, a provider of WAN optimization tools, finds that a significant percentage of the video viewed at work has nothing to do with business. As the average person becomes more exposed to video on the Internet, the percentage of non-business related video on the corporate network is only going to increase, thereby creating a significant issue for both the internal IT department and the folks in human resources.

Click through for results from a survey on employee video viewing  habits at work, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Blue Coat Systems.

Video is taking up a much higher percentage.

Over time, this will only increase.

Video can be a major distraction.

Right up there with infomercials.

Business-related videos narrowly lead news casts.

All it takes is a couple of simultaneous video streams to choke the WAN.

Same holds true for even a T1 connection.