Why ‘Good Enough’ networks are failing AI ambitions

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on every boardroom agenda, but many organisations are quietly discovering their legacy networks just aren't up to the job. 

While there's no shortage of investment in data, analytics and AI talent, the underlying infrastructure–the network which moves data at scale–remains outdated. And that's creating friction at precisely the time when agility, security and performance matter most, the invisible backbone is becoming a bottleneck. 

The uncomfortable truth is: in an AI-driven economy "good enough" is no longer good enough.

Here are the five most common myths I encounter when working with enterprise clients to future-proof their networks.

MYTH 1: "We can get by with upgrading our current network."

Reality: Legacy networks weren't built for the demands of today's AI-driven, cloud-intensive environments.

Many Australian enterprises believe they can simply 'upgrade' their existing network, but this is a costly illusion. Legacy networks weren't designed for today's fragmented, multi-cloud architectures, now powering AI workloads bursting across public, private, SaaS and edge environments.

As data flow needs increase exponentially across hybrid work environments, IoT and AI, the scale and speed required is pushing legacy infrastructure beyond breaking point. Rather than patching things up, enterprises need to rethink their foundations altogether moving towards agile, platformised networks built for speed, security and scale. 

MYTH 2: "Multi-cloud increases cost and complexity, we'll lose control."

Reality: Multi-cloud doesn't inherently drive up complexity or cost. In fact, failing to design for it is what leads to loss of control.

A well-architectured multi-cloud environment has significant advantages: it spreads risk, creates leverage and offers cost agility. By avoiding vendor lock-in, enterprises can maximize freedom to use the best of platforms and tools. Combined with improved operational resiliency through increased redundancy, performance optimisation and the ability to exercise compliance control, multi-cloud approach offers significant advantages.

However, without intelligent orchestration, workloads can balloon in cost, performance becomes unpredictable and compliance headaches multiply. That's where a modern network-as-a-service (NaaS) model comes in - it gives CIOs visibility and control over exactly how data flows across platforms, while optimising for cost, resilience and governance.

MYTH 3: "We can upgrade our network later, right now we're focused on AI."

Reality: Without a modern network, your AI ambitions will stall before they scale.

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of generative AI pilots, but AI workloads are performance intensive and data-hungry. They process vast amounts of distributed data dynamically, securely and at speed–the average enterprise network simply wasn't built for that.

Forward-thinking organisations adopt NaaS: a network fabric that interconnects hyperscaler and on-premise locations, enabling real-time shifting of workloads to meet the business demands. 

AI and your network are an inseparable duo; success at the former requires maturity in the latter.

MYTH 4: "SD-WAN solves everything"

Reality: SD-WAN is powerful, but it's just one piece of a much larger puzzle.

The shift from MPLS to SD-WAN was a natural evolution as enterprises moved from on-premise infrastructure to adapt their networks for distributed workloads and remote working–a trend exacerbated by the pandemic. However, many underestimated the complexity of integrating SD-WAN with legacy systems, evolving cloud architectures, and growing security needs–it's not a silver bullet.

SD-WAN can't fix a poor-quality underlay network, nor can it alone deliver the zero-trust, high-performance environment modern AI applications demand. Successful transformation requires an integrated approach: combining performant underlay, SD-WAN, SASE, cloud gateways, and unified visibility to create an intelligent, secure, and programmable foundation, delivering on the zero trust network vision.

Myth 5: "Uptime Is enough"

Reality: High availability is necessary, but not sufficient. Visibility, performance, and agility matter just as much.

Relying alone on green service levels doesn't mean your network is healthy–don't be fooled by the "watermelon effect": green on the outside, red on the inside. Applications are slow, user experience is poor and agility is missing.

In industries like mining & energy, finance, and healthcare, downtime isn't the only risk - degraded performance, including latency and inconsistency, is costly and can cause revenue and reputational harm. Organisations need to shift from traditional service levels to outcome driven network indicators aligned to business critical AI and cloud services.

This requires deep observability, intelligent traffic steering, and dynamic responsiveness to changing workloads and threats–all built into the network infrastructure from the foundation. Only then will your network keep pace with your AI ambitions.

So what next?

Australia's AI ambitions are valid and urgent, but without secure, resilient and programmable networks even the most advanced AI strategies risk failing. It's time to stop treating the network as backend plumbing, and start seeing it for what it is: a strategic platform for innovation.