Johannesburg, 05 Oct 2021
- With the global change of 2019, the need for more stable, fast and secure network connectivity has become the epicentre of digital transformation.
- If you don't consider SD-WAN as a potential springboard to propel your business into a competitive advantage, you're going to be stuck with a traditional rigid network.
- A network solution like SD-WAN, however, with next-generation firewalling (NGFW) can help businesses to free up much-needed cashflow.
- SD-WAN with NGFW secures connectivity across the internet with its expanded security threat landscape.
Most ICT professionals, more on the end-user side, often look at the issue of change and adaptation in dread of the time of change. Changing IT network infrastructure is a headache most network managers prefer to avoid and rather stick to known, legacy infrastructure. However, the unforeseen global pandemic of 2019 heralded a new era that drove life online at an accelerated pace. As a result, this forced many businesses to go remote, in a short space of time, to keep afloat or risk shutting down. Largely, it was the changing consumer behaviour that set the pace of this shift.
The need for accelerated digitalisation saw many companies moving from the old school of thought, judging IT infrastructure change as technology-driven, as they had to race to exceed IT-user and customer expectations as a new baseline for existence. The need for more stable, fast and secure network connectivity became the epicentre of digital transformation. With restricted movement and minimised feet through the door, customers needed alternative digital platforms to engage.
“Customers today expect a pleasant, professional experience from the moment they hit a particular organisation’s electronic collaboration platform. From scrutinising products and services to engage in commercial transactions to exploring after-sales services, such as the ease of tracking an order and dealing with returns. There are higher and different customer experience expectations now more than ever before, and the grace period for getting it wrong is over,” says Hein Witte, a Specialized Sales Executive for Telecommunication Services at Gijima.
But without the right network connectivity in place, there comes a risk of not being able to accelerate quality electronic engagement with existing and emerging business customers, while providing customers and staff access to legacy environments is just a ticket to the match.
The absence of SD-WAN might cause customer haemorrhage
“To be in the race, organisations need to fast-track their virtual commerce capability. By remaining on restrictive networks, businesses are putting themselves at risk to lose current customers and miss the opportunity to gain access to emerging businesses. If you don't consider SD-WAN as a potential springboard to propel your business into a competitive advantage, you're going to be stuck with a traditional rigid network and it is going to be very difficult to offer that much sought after electronic experience,” says Witte. “Those first engagements matter. If a customer is not sufficiently impressed with the experience that they receive the first time around, they will simply move elsewhere.”
According to McKinsey, consumers are switching brands more than ever before. To exist in a digital world, an e-commerce journey relies on good quality engagement. “When you conduct business through digital channels, the reach and quality of connectivity are extremely important to leave a pleasant real-time experience with your customers,” adds Witte.
While most agree that appropriate network connectivity is pivotal for business growth, there is still far too much reliance on traditional fixed networks, which are often more expensive than SD-WAN and are restrictive. Witte believes all businesses need to leverage their cashflow for business enhancement, so cost-saving should be maximised and translated into growth. A network solution like SD-WAN, however, with next-generation firewalling (NGFW), can help businesses to free up much-needed cashflow, which can be used more effectively.
“Network connectivity investments must at least achieve better for less and shouldn’t result in excessive cashflow lock-in. If you don’t manage your network spend optimally, you might not have the funds to elevate your business attractiveness,” says Witte. “If you are not saving costs on your network and redeploying the financial benefit in evolving your business, then it's not only reckless, but it also borders on criminality and poses a huge risk for your business.”
Of course, there are security challenges that come with always-on internet-based network access. Everything now happens over and in the network, and having SD-WAN with NGFW on the same device not only makes the cost of ownership attractive, but there are also additional security benefits worth considering. “Engaging electronically means that you are performing legal and commercial transactions digitally. It also means that you have exposure to public networks, making it attractive for cyber criminals who are trying to get into your business systems,” says Witte.
SD-WAN with NGFW offers unified threat management
Ensuring IT security while staying connected is paramount, but it also requires a shift in networking flows and security controls due to the increased risk of vulnerabilities. SD-WAN with NGFW secures connectivity across the internet with its expanded security threat landscape, offering a unified threat management solution.
“Ideal for business applications, NGFW scrutinises the content of what flows past it in a very intelligent manner. It will find patterns, probing, hacking – it screens you off from the danger within the internet and, at the same time, protects within the local area network,” explains Witte. An SD-WAN with NGFW doesn't simply create demilitarised zones, it looks inside the information that flows past it and can discover irregular behaviours and identify new threats.
“NGFWs are self-adjusting and self-learning. If a hacker finds a new way of getting into secure systems, these next-generation firewalls are updated so that on a next attempt the hacker will not be successful again,” says Witte. “As part of the SD-WAN, the implementation of NGFW capability on the same fabric ensures that any business can successfully mitigate the increased security risk that comes with internet-based connectivity.”
Don’t put your organisation at risk
Ultimately, organisations that don’t evolve their networking capabilities to stay in tune with business could be putting their businesses at risk. To thrive in a digital world, it’s important to evolve. To survive in a constantly changing industry such as online retail, a secure, flexible and cost-effective network is the absolute minimum requirement.
“If you are not already with or ahead of the curve, then catching up is going to be extremely hard. And if you don’t go through the acceleration of digital transformation, then you are most definitely going to lose business because customers will start to engage with those organisations who have already moved forward in the digital networking space,” ends Witte.
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