Similarly, while there has been talk of storage network infrastructure with data network infrastructure, that doesn't seem to be panning out either, at least short term. Slightly more than a third of respondents say they either have created a single infrastructure already or plan to by year-end, but 55% say they will not do it in the near future because they're not sure the benefits justify the cost.

In some cases where businesses have outsourced their data and storage networking to separate providers, long-term contracts prevent merging the two networking technologies anytime soon, Trussell says.

Meanwhile, demand for network-access control (NAC) is stalling out, with 30% saying they are piloting the technology or have long- or short-term plans to deploy it. That is down from 40% who said the same thing last fall. And those who have installed at least some NAC technology in their networks has hovered around 25% for the past 12 to 18 months, he says.Buyers seem to have trouble justifying NAC as a stand-alone purchase, but as they refresh their networking gear buy NAC-capable switches and routers. "We haven’t seen network-wide NAC as overly successful," he says. That could change over time especially with single-vendor rollouts that avoid potential interoperability problems, he says.

In the next round of surveys this fall, The Info Pro plans to ask how extensively it is deployed within those businesses that say they have adopted NAC at least to some extent.\

Demand for 802.11n wireless technology has exceeded Trussell's expectations. He says he thought demand would hold off until the 802.11n standard is approved, but customers are buying it sooner. "There seems to be a pent-up demand for it," he says.