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Optimising globally distributed sites

Adding more bandwidth, without addressing and optimising the way a network functions, is a futile exercise.

Richard Vester
By Richard Vester, EOH divisional director of Cloud Services.
Johannesburg, 05 Feb 2016

Network optimisation is not a new phenomenon. However, as more users, processes and applications vie for increasing use of limited network resources, network optimisation needs to be prioritised and moved higher up the agenda.

Fast-growing trends such as cloud and mobility are contributing to the fast network growth, as they bring with them massive volumes of applications and data that need to be housed and run on the network. This growth is placing strain on network architecture and resources.

Moreover, cloud and enterprise mobility are shifting applications and their associated connectivity outside of the usual enterprise wide area networks (WANs). These developments are putting great strain on the technical department's ability to provide the connectivity needed to allow access to the appropriate IT resources across the corporation, and its multiple offices. This means today's IT professionals are being called on to manage an increasingly diverse mesh of networks, and do this while boosting speed and performance.

This is a particular challenge in tough economic times, as financial considerations must be taken into account. Businesses spend roughly 10% of their budgets on IT operations, and the management of data flow across networks comprises a substantial chunk of this.

Under the microscope

Network optimisation affects the network as a whole, from individual workstations to network servers, and even local area networks (LANs) and WANs. Hardware and software investments are valuable tools in the network optimisation challenge, but are ineffective as the sole methods. Businesses need to scrutinise and evaluate all aspects of their networks, and look at how they can consolidate, replace or redesign systems and applications appropriately. At the same time, they must relook at internal processes to see whether or not network resources are being used most effectively. This is why network optimisation is vital.

Although it is core to massive, globally-based network and application deployments, it is very expensive to maintain when factoring in costs, skills and resources. This is why it is important to identify more sophisticated and cost-effective approaches to network optimisation. Because there are increasing benefits offered by optimisation services over longer distances, it makes sense that the development of a cloud-based globally distributed optimisation solution would give large, multinational corporations the best and most cost-effective alternative to using only global MPLS networks.

Today's IT professionals need to address diverse end-user connectivity profiles, such as MPLS-based, Internet-based, and mobile, and also handle myriad application origin scenarios, including cloud, SaaS, internal and suchlike. More and more, app developers must work with the enterprise architects to plan application delivery and make business-appropriate decisions.

The most crucial areas for these conversations should include hosting platforms and locations, disaster recovery and business continuity, application sourcing, and end-user requirements, including access and device. IT providers need application delivery solutions that deliver performance, security and speed, are simple to use and move where necessary, are cloud ready and best-in-class, and can be leveraged across a wide range of applications and processes.

Networks today are core to the success of all companies.

This is even more important in light of the fact that enterprise application delivery networks have to be able to support remote, Internet-based access to on-premises applications as well as business applications that run on third-party cloud infrastructure, or IaaS, or platform as a service.

Body talk

This is why it is crucial to extend the enterprise network beyond the corporate WAN and enterprise data centres to the Internet or cloud, in order to boost access to applications to all stakeholders within the enterprise, irrespective of where they are or where the applications are hosted. Networks today are core to the success of all companies. Think of networks as the blood vessels in the body, connecting all the different organs and areas of the body (business) - its employees, partners and suppliers to its systems and resources. Using the network effectively leads to improved business operations, boosted productivity, sales growth and, ultimately, a healthier bottom line.

As bandwidth use continues to grow, already over-stressed network architectures will suffer. One solution is to improve the network infrastructure, and optimisation is integral to that. In fact, with the continued and projected growth of business bandwidth requirements, optimising the network is a business imperative.

Network optimisation's effects can be felt throughout the business - from individual workstations to server rooms, across the whole LAN or WAN. Simply adding more bandwidth without optimising the way a network functions has become counterproductive - and with optimisation solutions easily accessible, this is fast becoming a wasteful approach.

When a company adds more bandwidth and finds user experience problems persist, proactive network management, which incorporates a holistic optimisation approach, will allow the current - and future - network to operate efficiently while being future-ready.

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