Johannesburg, 21 Aug 2020
During the age of social distancing, ironically, it’s connectivity that keeps us tethered to the real world – tethered to information, communication, employment and a host of other social and economic needs. Not only has the humble and often overlooked network kept the world running, but networks are also critical to the recovery and re-opening phases of industries and economies worldwide.
Once IT managers overcame the shock of having to connect employees from a planned and centralised location, ie, the office, to multiple locations with varying degrees of connectivity, security and reliability, a more interesting conundrum presented itself: what will modern enterprise networks look like beyond the pandemic? The answer, or a part of it, was on the tip of their fingers all along. The evolution of the enterprise network is at the precipice of hyper-connectivity and end-to-end automation.
A success story to attest to this is the hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), a technology that gained traction pre-pandemic and has continued to make a strong case for hyper-connectivity. Large enterprise networking companies have migrated up the stack beyond nuts-and-bolts connectivity and into hybrid-cloud management, automation of networking processes that achieve hyper-connectivity for organisations.
CIO and IT managers designing their path to digital transformation need to reconsider the modern network architecture and how it delivers valuable outcomes for the organisation, and more importantly, its customers. Post-pandemic networks will either have to match or surpass the adaptability and agility offered by hyper-converged infrastructures.
HCI is not the destination or holy grail of enterprise systems, but it is a benchmark, and organisations looking to future proof their network will have to include it in their roadmap. The point of post-pandemic networks is that they must be more robust than the pre-pandemic versions.
They need to consolidate lessons learnt from the pandemic, with technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, to help the organisation make insight-driven decisions. They will need to harness flexible and adaptable network technologies, capable of improving network availability and agility. Technology such as SD-WAN, secure access service edge (SASE), and intent-based networking (IBN) that will keep networks, and, more crucially, operations intact should a global or significant disruption transpire.
Rethinking or reconfiguring a future-proof network requires partnering with strategic allies that continuously have their ear to the proverbial ground. Axiz is a strategic partner. As a services-based strategic distributor, assisting multiple markets with transformative value-added services, Axiz has decades of experience building ecosystems of value to enable the market.
These ecosystems are predicated on the company’s preparedness to invest in emerging technologies and expose these to our network of partners. Axiz provides home-grown and globally acquired technologies offering solutions across the data centre real estate to provide holistic infrastructure solutions based on customised requirements and capabilities.
It’s fair to say networks are the foundation of any digital transformation strategy and are critical to business success. The path a business chooses for its digital transformation matters. Is it a well-informed decision that takes into account emerging technologies and is supported by robust channel partners? Or is a litany of short-cuts, shortcomings and long shots that will undoubtedly leave the organisation unprepared?
Companies have found ways and means to connect more users, devices and thousands of locations to mission-critical applications, on-premises and in the cloud, but how they achieved this matters. Yes, the pandemic exposed some glaring blind spots, but it also showed how strong the modern enterprise network is. The fact is, the pandemic has revealed how crucial a future-looking network is.
To enhance your business’s network and net worth, bring the leading digital technologies distributor in Africa on board. Axiz, building ecosystems, transcending technology.
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