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TO MAKE THIS AGILE
ELYSIUM A REALITY, ORGANISATIONS
NEED TO CONSIDER HOW THEY CAN
REARCHITECT THEIR NETWORK FOR A
DIGITAL AGE.
connectivity needs to encompass the
cloud to offer greater flexibility, agility and
scalability. In addition, organisations should
be able to ensure sustained availability of
the network by leveraging the ability to
have two or more lines in operation as a
precautionary solution for failover.
Adaptability and flexibility
Secondly, it is undeniable that to enable
agility, the network needs to be flexible,
available on demand and easy to manage.
Organisations need the ability to make real-
time changes to user access or bandwidth
to either support specific projects, or to
support a spike in employee workload for a
short duration.
Similarly, the organisation needs the ability
to provision changes. With automated
policy management, organisations have the
ability to automatically rollout changes or
updates to the enterprise network at speed,
regardless of location.
A new networking approach
To make this agile Elysium a reality,
organisations need to consider how they
can rearchitect their network for a digital
age. Agility is all about enabling enterprises
to pivot quickly in response to change –
potentially requiring the introduction of new
products or services, the need to enter a new
market or even create a new digital-centric
business model.
Selecting the right networking technology
needs to become a priority for enterprises.
Combining the power of the Internet with
greater use of software and virtualisation
technologies using Software-Defined Wide
Area Networking technologies (SD-WAN),
allows enterprises to adapt to the varying
demands and dependencies placed on
the network.
Responding at speed is the new reality
In the coming years, SD-WAN is well
positioned to become a strategic enabler
for companies, allowing them to increase
efficiency, enhance performance and
improve security without increasing costs.
SD-WAN offers the promise of zero-touch
provisioning, allowing for faster time of
service deployment. The availability of
SD-WAN with universal CPE also creates
the possibility of service chaining, providing
the ability to seamlessly add networking
functionality such as WAN optimisation
and enhanced security without the time
and expense of deploying additional
hardware. By prioritising a new networking
approach, organisations can effectively
prepare for the future and preserve their
competitive edge.
For example, Europac, the international
packaging brand, has embraced SD-WAN
to gain competitive advantage. It has used
SD-WAN to gain greater flexibility and
optimise its network to support cloud-based
applications, providing the organisation
with the agility to support its Digital
Transformation strategy.
With more and more businesses across
sectors and geographies digitising their
offerings, it’s time to embrace SD-WAN to
support a cloud-based future and gain the
agility required of a digital world. SD-WAN
offers businesses enhanced control of their
network, improves visibility and supports
performance while offering bandwidth
efficiency – all without increasing costs.
When moving to SD-WAN, it’s important
to look for features that simplify network
management. Offerings that allow
businesses to use a single device to connect
to multiple functions, manage software
updates all in one place, reduce hardware
costs and simplify installations, will
consolidate network functions. In turn, this
will improve agility and make it easier to
rollout new networking services. n
40
INTELLIGENTCIO
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