As businesses grow, especially in cases of mergers and acquisitions, their network operations extend with new resources added continuously. Integrating new locations, teams, and projects seems faster and cheaper by leaving their network environments intact.
Such a “glued on”, highly heterogeneous network configuration is known as “infrastructure sprawl,” and exposes the entirety of the network to various vulnerabilities.
When connectivity is a commodity, visibility becomes a premium. Business growth, especially when the capex cost for integrating newly acquired networks offers little or no visible ROI, can create highly heterogeneous network environments known as infrastructure sprawl.