Real bottleneck in enterprise networks is skills, not speed

Brett van Rooyen, NEC XON Adtran Product Manager.

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There’s a clear message for companies considering enterprise connectivity strategy: networks are entering a new phase defined less by raw capacity alone and more by how effectively organisations can manage accelerating data growth, rising complexity and persistent skills shortages.

Brett van Rooyen, NEC XON Adtran Product Manager, says the enterprise landscape is being reshaped by the rapid expansion of cloud and AI-driven workloads.

“We’re seeing a major shift driven by data growth,” says Van Rooyen. “Enterprises are dealing with much larger volumes of data, especially with cloud and AI workloads becoming more common. That’s creating demand for higher capacity, lower latency and more predictable performance.”

But Van Rooyen cautioned that the challenge is no longer purely technological. In his view, many organisations are struggling to keep pace operationally as environments become more complex. “Many customers don’t have the internal expertise to manage these increasingly complex environments, so we act as a partner to simplify that process and make it scalable,” he says.

That shift, he added, is driving a growing reliance on integration-led approaches and managed service models, particularly as skills gaps widen in both emerging and mature markets.

Byren Meintjies, Senior Manager of Global Business Development at Adtran.

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Byren Meintjies, Senior Manager of Global Business Development at Adtran, says the underlying driver is the evolution of applications themselves, which are placing fundamentally new demands on network infrastructure. “We’re seeing more distributed workloads, more real-time requirements and much heavier data flows,” says Meintjies. “That’s pushing demand towards higher-capacity optical solutions and more efficient transport architectures.”

However, both men emphasise that capacity alone is not enough. Operational simplicity is becoming a decisive factor in how organisations design next-generation networks.

One area gaining traction is IP over DWDM (IPoDWDM), which integrates IP and optical layers to reduce complexity in the network stack. Meintjies says this approach is increasingly being used to simplify operations while improving scalability. “By combining IP and optical layers, you reduce the number of elements that need to be deployed and managed,” Meintjies says. “That lowers complexity, improves efficiency and makes it easier to scale.”

Beyond technology design, Meintjies highlighted the importance of execution in real-world environments. “We need high-performance technology that is also flexible and easy to integrate into different environments,” he says. Looking ahead, both organisations expect continued growth in data demand, but believe the defining shift will be in how networks are built and operated to support that growth.

Van Rooyen says future networks will need to prioritise flexibility, scalability and operational efficiency, with integration playing a central role as skills shortages continue to constrain enterprise capability. “We’ll see continued growth in data demand, but the real shift will be in how that demand is delivered,” he says. “Networks will need to be more flexible, more scalable and much easier to operate.”

Meintjies added that the industry is moving towards simpler, more automated architectures, with tighter integration across network layers and increased use of automation in network management.

Ultimately, reality necessitates a shared conclusion: while bandwidth demands continue to rise, the real competitive differentiator for enterprises will be their ability to manage complexity.