Network Admins Are Bracing Themselves

The NCAA Tournament is once again captivating audiences of American sports fans - including those who are at work. While March Madness continues to attract massive television audiences each year, they have increasingly sophisticated live streaming and mobile viewing options which are bringing in even more viewers - including office workers that don't have access to a television. Last year, 80.7 million live streams and 17.8 hours of live video were consumed during the tournament, a 17 percent increase over 2014. And when fans weren't watching, they were sharing clips and talking about the games on social media. The tournament posted a record 350 million total social impressions on Facebook and Twitter, a 45 percent increase over 2014.

IT departments have certainly taken notice of this trend. Last year, we surveyed our customers after the opening round of games and discovered that 77 percent of respondents reported higher network traffic levels during workday when NCAA Tournament games were taking place, with 25 percent stating that their organization blocks live streaming on the network. This year, we decided to ask our customers how they were preparing for the tournament ahead of time, and the numbers show that March Madness is top of mind. Our poll of 229 customers, conducted through direct email and social media, revealed that 86 percent of respondents believe that a high number of users streaming NCAA Tournament games could have a severe impact on their network. A nearly unanimous group, 94 percent, expected network traffic/utilization levels to be higher during tournament games that take place during the work day.

In a departure from last year's results, 87 percent of respondents stated that their company will, as a matter of policy, block access to live streaming on the network. That is a massive increase from the 25 percent that reported having done so last year, and suggests that IT departments are becoming more sensitive to live streaming and mobile usage in the workplace. A majority of respondents expect similar levels of disruption from the upcoming Olympics - another massively popular sporting event that often takes place during work hours in many countries.

While IT can do its best to block live streaming, there are other approaches that can help alleviate this problem. Here are a few tips from Paessler on how to calm the madness in your network:

1. Clearly communicate IT policies: Many employees simply may not understand just how much trouble unsanctioned live streaming can cause. Be clear with your employees about the issue at hand ahead of time and let them know about expected protocol and behavior.
2. Set up a separate WiFi network for mobile devices: Rather than attempt to stop streaming altogether, which is a tall order, it might be simpler to sanction limited streaming on mobile devices over a WiFi network that is separated out from production networks.
3. Allow viewing in common areas: As a matter of HR policy, one way to ensure no one is streaming is to allow viewing in large common areas. Bring a TV into the break room or set up a projector and allow employees to work while the games are shown from one central location.
4. Monitor network traffic closely, and set more stringent alerts: Be prepared for anything on game days, and set up specific alerts to set off alarm bells at the first sign of trouble.

If there is a silver lining for IT departments, it's that March Madness only lasts one month out of the year!

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The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, known widely as "March Madness," is in full swing, and a new college basketball national champion will be determined next Monday when the final is played. The tournament, which begins with 68 teams and spans nearly three weeks, is one of the most popular and highly viewed sporting events in the U.S. In fact, Saturday's thrilling, close game between the undefeated and top-ranked University of Kentucky and the University of Notre Dame was the most viewed college basketball game in the history of cable television, according to Forbes magazine.

This year's March Madness is clearly living up to the hype, with lots of classic games and a high number of TV viewers. And with many of the early tournament games being played on weekday mornings and afternoons in the U.S., many people were tempted to try to watch the games while they were at work. With the games being available online through live streaming, this could mean lots of people watching games from their desks or mobile devices in the office.

We wondered if our customers had employees watching NCAA games online during the workday, and how this might be affecting their network traffic levels. We sent a quick survey to our customers, and nearly 40 organizations responded with the following:

• Traffic levels go up, but with little "blocking" - Nearly 77% of respondents indicated that their network traffic levels increased during workdays when NCAA tournament games were taking place, but only 25% of respondents said that their organizations block live streaming on the network to prevent employees from watching at work.
• Monitoring remains the same, for the most part - 64% of respondents said that their IT departments do not monitor network levels more closely on the days when NCAA games are being played.
• Most users are not affected - 82% said that streaming video of NCAA games during work hours did not affect users' ability to be productive because of a network slowdown or outage.

In all, while it looks like people are definitely using their network to stream video of NCAA games during the workday, it does not seem to be affecting users or IT departments enough to cause widespread concern. We will see if this trend continues or if networks become more strained next year as the tournament gains more popularity, or if other sporting events such as the Olympics or the World Cup have a similar or greater effect. We will check back in the future to see if things have changed or if this trend continues.