Need for Standardized Ratings for IT Networks Globally

Industries have witnessed all sorts of organizational ratings in recent decades. For example, ratings all the way from quality compliance to financial standing have been widely used to instantly assess where an organization stands in a specific area.

With information technology and communications networks now becoming a backbone of almost every organization, no rating has existed to accurately assess how secure, robust and scalable an IT network of an organization is – in particular large organizations, where the quality of IT/communications network implementation is measured by the overall stability and product/service delivery reliability.

Just recently, Softflux's Data17, a global data services division of Softflux, introduced ratings for IT and communication networks of public and large private companies. As the global compliance industry lacks a specific rating system for data and communications implementations, Data17 seems to bring the service to ensure IT networks are secure and robust.

Three ratings introduced by Data17 are:

Net- (i.e. Net minus) means an organization's local, national or global IT/communications network is below industry standards. This rating also signifies there may be data security vulnerabilities in the implemented model. Implementations that are not optimized and lead to network slowdown can also push an organization's

rating towards Net-.

Net+ means standards for implemented network are sufficiently efficient, secure and reliable to run the operations without any near term security threats and downtime possibilities.

Net++ is the highest Data17 rating usually attained by large public companies that have implemented systems and data security models that are well above industry standards and also take long term needs of the organization into consideration.

Softflux's Data17 has started data network audits at public companies globally. With Data17 now actively stepping into rating of IT and communication networks, larger providers such as Cisco Systems, IBM and Microsoft are also expected to enter the domain and perhaps introduce ratings of their own.

Standardized ratings of IT network implementations across industries is an innovative concept and will definitely become a considerable factor in measuring overall stability and service reliability of organizations worldwide.

Authored by:

Sheila Khan