Large Enterprises: Think Like a Service Provider When it Comes to Network Connectivity

Next Generation Communications Blog

Large Enterprises: Think Like a Service Provider When it Comes to Network Connectivity

By: Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

There is hardly a business today that does not require high speed and high performance Internet connectivity. Let’s face it, quality network access is table stakes for running a successful business in an increasingly connected world where commerce is 24/7/365 and can originate or terminate from anywhere and over any device with a browser.  As a result, ensuring good networking and communications for employees is a major priority for all businesses, but it is an especially daunting one for large enterprises due the volume and the accommodation of rapid change thanks to things like the cloud, BYOD, mobility and the virtualization of the workplace.

A recent Alcatel-Lucent application note, The large enterprise has changed, gave an interesting snapshot of large enterprise IT today. 

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Source: Alcatel-Lucent, The large enterprise has changed

Based on this, it stressed that large enterprises have networking and communications infrastructure needs that are surprisingly similar to those of the network operators themselves, thanks to the growing importance of having employees connected with the bandwidth, security and reliability they need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively.

What this means is that large enterprises should start thinking like a network operator.  This includes having telecom-grade IP platform infrastructure in place to support employee connectivity.

Specifically, large enterprise should think about using data center automation that can take advantage of technologies such as software-defined networking (SDN). With something like Alcatel-Lucent’s Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform, large enterprises can deliver SDN capabilities including centralized, policy-driven networking, simplified configuration and compliance automation.

Large enterprises also should have virtualized network services that can leverage SDN to create wide area networks (WANs) that can use best of breed technology and avoid proprietary lock-in.

In terms of the cloud, large enterprises are overwhelmingly deploying private clouds. Large enterprises should make sure they have a turnkey solution in place to make those deployments easy and also flexible enough to support web-based applications and mobile apps.

In thinking like telecoms, large enterprises additionally should consider optical transport and data center interconnect.

Optical transport delivers the bandwidth and speed that large enterprises need to keep up with network demand, and data center interconnect delivers the flexibility and capacity for faster service turn-up and assured business continuity while improving asset utilization and lowering costs. Data center interconnect brings scalable, secure, high-performing, multi-site data center connectivity for the cloud era.

Network connectivity is a key component of every business, especially for large enterprises. As a result, businesses need to learn from network operators and consider investing in similar technologies when it comes to their own connectivity projects.






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