$250,000. That is the average amount a business loses per hour due to downtime, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) estimate. Downtime may seem like an occasional annoyance, but when it’s translated into nickels and dimes, the consequences of a poor network are clear.
With COVID-19 changing the way business is run, 2020 revealed what the future of work will look like. Business resilience and business continuity have become more important. The traditional office setting offered all the technical resources employees could ever need. Now, workforce connectivity, virtual desktop performance, and data center security are just a few of the challenges highlighted by a rapidly growing distributed workforce.
IDC published the Achieving Network Modernization for the Decade Ahead white paper (sponsored by VMware and Intel) detailing how digital transformation and network modernization are the keys to business resiliency. But how should these businesses upgrade their networks to be future-ready?
Network Virtualization
Network virtualization is a necessary step toward network modernization. Software-defined networks (SDNs) are flexible, scalable, and can be aligned with business goals. Additionally, a software-driven network infrastructure is imperative to reduce operational complexity.
Key benefits of network virtualization versus hardware-only approaches include:
- Reducing network provisioning time to minutes, instead of weeks
- Automating manual processes to achieve greater operational efficiency
- Moving workloads independently of physical topology
- Improving network security within the data center
Hardware-only networks are static, inflexible, and inefficient. They cannot keep up with distributed applications or defend against the latest security threats. Organizations that do not virtualize are already falling behind.
Network Modernization Necessities
When you embark upon your network modernization journey, you should design and optimize to keep up with today’s IT infrastructure challenges.
First, networks must be designed end-to-end. This enables the network to reach every endpoint where digital business takes place, such as branch offices and remote sites.
Keep in mind how the network will function with everyday tasks. Remember that simple day 0/1/2 operations are more likely to meet the needs of modern businesses. Automation facilitates agility and flexibility. It allows your network to keep up with both the volatile tech landscape and the dynamics of your particular field. Automation enables faster troubleshooting and issue resolution, allowing you to innovate instead of wasting time solving tedious problems.
According to an IDC poll, the top three priorities to multi-cloud success are security and compliance, network performance, and the flexibility to move workloads.
Modernize to Take Full Advantage of Cloud
IDC declares that the cloud should be thought of not only as a destination but also as a set of valuable technologies integral to doing business in the future.
To accommodate the cloud, businesses must have a modern infrastructure, a network to support it, and the willingness to invest significantly in their modernization process. IDC predicts that 60% of an enterprise’s IT infrastructure budget will be directed toward public cloud in 2025.
The Solution
Digital transformation is imperative to adapt to the future of work. A modernized network will not only make your organization $250,000 richer every now and again, but also make it more dynamic, agile, and resilient in the face of rapid change.
VMware and Intel have partnered to combine the latest in industry-standard hardware and software to support the rapidly growing demands placed on today’s network infrastructures. Read the full IDC white paper, Achieving Network Modernization for the Decade Ahead, to learn how these synergistic solutions may give your organization the edge it needs to be future-ready.
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