Networking is the next area for cloud
adoption. As the number of remote workers and IoT connected devices increases,
traditional networks are becoming too complex to manage. Adding to this
complexity is the often-independent management of WAN, wired and wireless
networks —orchestrated by standalone tools — leading to challenges that can
cause downtime and user experience concerns.
To
break down silos and simplify the network management lifecycle, the time has
come to unify network operations in the cloud. A unified infrastructure brings
the management of all networks together — into a single, cloud-native
dashboard.
“We have seen an increase in the number
of organisations adopting SD-WAN in a bid to help them improve both their IT
agility and the delivery of cloud apps. In fact, it is reported by IDC that 42%
of organisations plan to/have already adopted SD-WAN. Aruba has compiled a list
of five benefits you will accrue by unifying your network,” says Warren Gordon,
ARUBA/HPE Business Unit Manager at
Duxbury Networking (local distributors of ARUBA/HPE technology):
1.
Improve network agility to keep pace with digital innovation – Networks
will continue to play a pivotal role in delivering applications, data, and the
resulting digital experiences to end users. Unfortunately, siloed, legacy,
manually-driven networks are holding businesses back.
Implementing necessary network changes on a device-by-device basis is time-consuming, tedious, and costly. Manual operations of this nature require costly truck rolls to dispatch skilled IT personnel from site-to-site and often result in delays, cost overruns, and operator errors.
Conversely,
unified and cloud-managed networks make it far easier to deploy new services or
entirely new sites. Capabilities such as zero touch provisioning enable IT to
preconfigure devices such as access points, switches, and gateways. Upon
arriving onsite, devices are plugged in, powered up, and automatically receive
their configurations and policies from the cloud. Network connectivity is up
and running in mere minutes.
Similar
efficiency can be gained during change windows. From a cloud-based management
console, IT can stage configuration changes just once, instantly validate that
those updates conform to network policies and are error-free, and then
instantly push the new settings to every applicable device across the network.
Cloud-driven
workflows such as these enable significant cost- and time-savings by reducing
errors and rework, as well as costs and delays associated with onsite IT visits.
2.
Use AIOps to free up IT for strategic work – AIOps helps IT spot
issues before they become actual problems. In this case, the use of AI and
machine learning make sense of massive amounts of metadata stored in the cloud,
translating raw information into clear insights and recommended actions.
A
key AIOps feature is the ability to dynamically baseline network behaviour over
time, automatically accounting for changing conditions such as seasonal traffic
patterns. This way, IT doesn’t chase false positives, as alert fatigue can also
be a resource drain.
Dynamic
baselines are also beneficial because it’s time-consuming for IT to manually
set and maintain static service-level agreements (SLAs) for every site. With
real-time insights into network behaviour, IT can instantly see and respond to
actual issues.
Using anomaly detection, IT can automatically identify and begin addressing issues – oftentimes before users notice there’s a problem. Better yet, with the right level of AI-driven insights, the probable root cause is pinpointed, so IT knows precisely what to fix, and how to fix it. Issues are also categorised based on severity, helping IT prioritise changes and improvement efforts based on business impact.
Lastly,
cloud-managed networks can make use of anonymised peer comparisons from a
common data lake. Here, insights are gathered and presented from customers with
similar site or network characteristics, so IT can proactively make
configuration changes that may ultimately yield performance or capacity improvements
over existing infrastructure.
3.
Monitor and improve the user experience from anywhere – One-third
(33%) of network or application issues are reported by end users[i],
meaning IT is often in reactive mode when addressing business-impacting
problems. This also assumes IT is onsite or has the right levels of remote
access to troubleshoot the issue in the first place.
A
unified infrastructure with a cloud-managed networking solution can help by
empowering IT to monitor user, device, and application performance from
anywhere. Solutions that offer client-side monitoring that mimics user
behaviour provide further insights, helping IT assess and validate the impact
network changes have on applications and the employees or customers attempting
to connect to them.
4.
Support teleworkers, minus the IT overhead – Cloud-managed
networking helps deliver in-office experiences, no matter where employees work.
Such solutions can extend secure connectivity into employees’ homes, either via
remote access points or a VPN service. Both options should be easy for any
employee to install, and should provide reliable access to apps and data – all
while maintaining a secure connection.
IT gets full visibility and troubleshooting support via the cloud to address and resolve issues. This way, IT can reduce costs tied to addressing support tickets and the exponential impact of avoiding work stoppages.
5.
Stronger security for BYOD and IoT – Cloud-based networking can
help IT extend security policies and approved levels of network access wherever
employees go – onsite, on the road, or at home. Policy-based automation
replaces static concepts like VLANs or ACLs, and capabilities such as intrusion
detection and prevention block incoming threats coming from SaaS applications
delivered over the Internet.
To
close IoT visibility gaps, consider solutions that offer AI-based device
profiling that continuously fingerprint all devices on the network. By tracking
device usage and behaviour, IT can ensure proper policies are being enforced.
“The
end result of unifying your network is higher levels of efficiency, coupled
with a lower total cost of ownership. You will subsequently improve
productivity and enhance resiliency,” says Gordon.