TEST EQUIPMENT & TOOLS
The age of Gigabit is
approaching – are you ready?
Bandwidth builds business. But getting the most out of the network is a balancing
act, so it’s no surprise that the appetite for even more bandwidth continues to grow,
says Steve Brown, director of enterprise solutions at VIAVI Solutions.
I
n fact, two out of three IT and
network professionals expect
bandwidth usage to increase
by up to 50% by the end of
this year.
As a result, gigabit internet
deployments are rapidly
accelerating as they make their
way to businesses and consumers
around the world. In just the past
year, deployments tracked by
the Gigabit Monitor have risen at
a rate of 72%, delivering gigabit
internet access to more than 219
million people worldwide. This is
good news for business… but what
does it mean for IT professionals
and network service providers?
Evolution or Revolution?
Gigabit speeds and new
technologies are driving new
capabilities and even more
oppor tunities to innovate and
differentiate. Faster compute, new
applications and more storage
are all working together to enable
greater efficiency and greater
power. Yet with oppor tunity
comes complexity.
Network traffic growth
continues to defy expectations.
More than just the volume of
traffic, however, there is an
evolving mix of data traffic —
including encrypted video whic h
is expected to account for more
than 65% of all business network
traffic by 2020, according to
Cisco’s Visual Networking Index.
And when you factor in hybrid
cloud environments and the
rapidly growing Internet of Things
24 | September 2017
(IoT), it’s no wonder that managing
networks and applications is more
complex than ever.
While fibre makes up the bulk
of gigabit deployments today,
there is strong evidence pointing
to significant changes coming in
cellular gigabit connectivity. As of
early this year, 25 mobile operators
had lab-tested 5G, and at least 12
of those have progressed to field
trials. 5G is coming and networks
need to be ready for it.
So how should businesses
prepare for gigabit internet to
make sure they are realising its full
potential? And what can IT teams do
to meet end-user expectations when
migrating to higher speed networks?
Prepare to Succeed
T h e ke y to s u c c e s s f u l l y
m i g rat i n g to g i ga b i t i s
p re p a rat i o n . H i g h e r s p e e d s
m e a n m o re d ata t h ro u g h p u t ,
w h i c h p u t s m o re s t ra i n o n y o u r
n et wo r k . O p e n i n g t h e i nte r n et
f l o o d gate s w i t h o u t a s t rate g i c
p l a n c o u l d c o m p ro m i s e t h e
h e a l t h a n d p e r fo r m a n c e of y o u r
wo r k l o a d s , n ot to m e nt i o n t h e
s e c u r i t y o f y o u r e nt i re n et wo r k .
First, be sure to evaluate
the condition of your network
infrastructure to determine if
it’s robust enough to handle
increased workloads. Here are
four critical questions to assess
your network preparedness: