The network is increasingly recognised as one of the most strategic assets in IT. IT Managers are regularly challenged to decide whether to increase speed or capacity to optimise the performance of their network and meet the ever-changing demands of their business.  Historically, IT Departments have not really had to juggle the demand for speed (latency) over capacity (bandwidth), this has always been an easy decision: just get more bandwidth!

Using roads as an analogy, the "get more bandwidth” ethos holds true. We have traditionally attempted to fix our traffic by building more motorways and adding more lanes. If there is an extra lane we all rush in thinking this will get us there faster, when it often just moves the bottleneck to another section of road.

We are now trying to make our roads smarter by doing things like holding traffic in the streets with on-ramp lights and increasing public transport. These traffic management techniques are positively impacting the daily commute we have every day.

The analogy holds true for network optimisation. It is no longer a binary decision to add more bandwidth or not, but to work towards continuous optimisation of a network, our organisations need intelligent networks that will offer them speed, capacity and much more.

Next generation network

In 2011, the network provides the platform for all the architectures and applications that keep a business running 24/7. Right now, that network is being asked to accommodate more devices, in more locations, with real risk to network security than ever before.  IP traffic growth is being fuelled by new media applications and user demand for more interactivity, personalisation, mobility and video.

Research from the 2011 Cisco Visual Networking Index predicts that by 2015 global internet traffic will quadruple, business IP video conferencing will grow six-fold, and there will be one million video minutes (the equivalent of 674 days) traversing the Internet every second.

As video in particular becomes pervasive in an organisation and more video devices are used, new demands are placed on the network. It can be challenging to accommodate the video needs while reducing complexity, planning for capacity and providing the best possible user experience.

Traditional IP networks have to evolve to accommodate these changes. Network managers need to look for more intelligence in the network, so they can add features on top of speed applications to ensure optimisation.

Next generation networks will require smarter network applications to manage shared media and cloud services, while reducing the total cost of ownership, and ensuring a quality user experience through optimised bandwidth use and efficiency

.Is your network ready for video, collaboration, virtualisation and cloud?

As device proliferation continues along with the demand for mobility, the network provides context for ensuring pervasive compliance and security. The network is the common thread that ties all of these things together. Optimization and automation in the network is the key.  An intelligent network can do things like re-organise traffic flows and react appropriately, allowing the network to leverage what it already has without having to continually increase capacity.

By ensuring your network is intelligently automated, speed and capacity becomes less important as the network intuitively recognises the changes occurring within it and know how to act differently.

Investing in Intelligent NetworkNetworks need to be viewed as a platform for business growth. Security, quality of service, ease of management, media-awareness, energy efficiency, mobility and the ability to provision next-generation business models are not incidental applications of the network. The network is absolutely crucial to enabling the type of IT models that will change how we do business.

As IT Managers understand the benefits of the intelligent network, instead of considering just cost, they look to the level of customisation their network can offer. Key considerations for investing in an intelligent network include:

• Optimisation – Where the switching and routing network fabric is intelligent and can  communicate with peers and deliver automation and optimisation.
• Media enabled – The network needs to differentiate important video (CEO video conference with the Board) from somewhat less important video (Youtube of funny cats).
• Resiliency – Maintain both increased uptime and continue to deliver a quality of service and experience across both wired and wireless networks.
• Mobility – Allowing iPads/tablets/mobile devices into the network securely with the right permissions based on who, what, when, where and how telemetry then support delivery of internal and Cloud resources.
• Identity –manage the network with policies based on who users are, and what they are trying to do, rather than what their IP address is.

In essence, the investment in your network is not about speed or latency, but about architecture.  Understanding what the network needs to deliver today, tomorrow and well into the future and then designing a network that can exceed these requirements.