We’re back with another educational series, this time addressing Network Transformation. In part 1, we will address the changing landscape and why such an undertaking has become necessary.

The Technology Landscape Has Rapidly Changed.

Consider that just five years ago, the majority of an enterprise’s applications were hosted within the four corners of a private data center – one they built or a third-party colocation provider.  They had dedicated servers and applications hosted on those servers, and a network that came into that data center.

But in the face of today’s evolving cloud environments, legacy network architectures simply aren’t ready.  As enterprises keep pushing sensitive applications that contain sales, marketing, HR and other business data beyond their four walls, they will be looking for ways to better control the data security and performance.  With even routine business functions being performed on cloud-based applications such as Microsoft® O365 (used by 30 percent of companies with more than 1,000 employees), companies are finding legacy networks are negatively affecting user experience and data performance.  Because the WAN is often neglected as part of the process, the modernization of data applications via cloud-enabled solutions experience slow adoption, higher than expected costs and long implementations.

And this pace of change will only accelerate: According to its research, Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020.  In 2016, 5.5 million new things will get connected every day.*

Is Your IT Infrastructure Ready?

To address these challenges, leading enterprises have embraced a better way: Network Transformation.  Network Transformation provides a roadmap for the enterprise to modernize their information technology infrastructure focused on cost reduction, performance improvement and cloud enablement.

Network Transformation enables smarter data delivery via a more efficient, high-speed, lower cost network that is ready to handle your toughest data challenges.  This series will explore some of the triggers that prompt enterprises to consider Network Transformation, how to prepare for it, and the results they can achieve through implementation.

*Gartner Press Release, Gartner Says 6.4 Billion Connected “Things” Will Be in Use in 2016, Up 30 Percent From 2015, November 10, 2015, http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317