New Year, More Bandwidth
Making sure your company has enough bandwidth to support evolving software application and connectivity needs is a constant endeavor but ever important as your business moves forward into the next year.
Research shows that most organizations are increasing their investment in bandwidth to keep up with expanding cloud environments and other IoT needs.
Looking ahead, consider these insights and tips to help guide your company’s bandwidth strategy for next year.
Supporting Digital Transformation
Moving your company toward interconnection maturity means being able to meet the accelerating requirements for the bandwidth capacity needed for the digital evolution.
Analysts predict by 2022, 60 percent of the global population will be on the internet and more than 28 billion devices and connections will be online.
But it’s the enterprise shift to web-based applications and Software as a Service (SaaS) that drives much of the bandwidth demand. A hybrid infrastructure continues to be the norm, driving increased demand for internet/cloud connectivity into multiple clouds.
“As business models become increasingly distributed and dependent on the real-time engagement of many more users, partners and service providers, a company’s ability to transform into a digital business has become a matter of survival,” warns Equinix in The Global Interconnection Index study.
Key to transformation is the diversity of ecosystems and exchange points, the report says.
“The multi-infrastructure design approach businesses are pursuing puts the focus on one constant infrastructure component that needs to be efficiently architected – connectivity,” Equinix says. “An important consideration is that when it comes to connectivity, raw capacity is not always enough. The quality or features of the connectivity also play a role.”
More Cloud Expansion
An estimated 67 percent of enterprise infrastructure and software spending will be allocated to cloud solutions, according to an IDC survey.
Makes total sense, as shifting workloads to the cloud can aid the transformation of a business into something far more efficient and more agile.
But be sure to look at connectivity and bandwidth issues as you plan for cloud migration and evolve your infrastructure, advises Alex Denley, director of innovation and transformation at London South Bank University, in a CIO article.
"Don't rush, understand your landscape, understand your environment in as much as you can," he says.
Get Buy-In
Assuming your organization is among those with plans to expand cloud technologies next year, find ways to work toward continuity between your strategy and expectations across the company.
CIOs and other IT leaders point to across-the-organization planning as one way to lessen risks such as under-delivering and cost issues as the systems project unfolds.
“It’s crucial that CIOs align their cloud strategy with the wider business agenda, and define clear and measurable goals,” says a blog posted by CIO magazine.
“This encourages buy-in from the business and ensures that you have the right priorities, while making it easier to measure the success of the migration.”
Consider Advances, Efficiency Gains
Sufficient bandwidth for your connected enterprise certainly means more efficient processes for employees, vendors and customers as you enable collaboration, videoconferencing, customer relationship management and resource planning applications.
But evolving your organization’s bandwidth also can help with making advances in your smart machinery -- smart machines, robots, autonomous vehicles, etc., will be better equipped to collect and transfer more data.
“Without advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and the internet of things, we would not be hopping into Ubers, accessing account information by voice, and enjoying frictionless engagement with our favorite services,” writes Martha Heller, CEO of IT executive recruiting firm Heller Search Associates, in a CIO magazine article.
Are you prepared for the year to come? Talk to an Advisor today about your bandwidth needs.
