As the cloud computing market has soared, businesses have begun incorporating a mix of cloud services to meet their Digital Transformation (DX) objectives. Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments are fast becoming the option of choice. In fact, according to a recent Information Age article, 451 Research determined that the future of IT is multi-cloud and hybrid with 69 percent of survey respondents planning to incorporate some form of multi-cloud environment by 2019.To read this article in full, please click here
Flash storage has quickly taken off, thanks to its ability to use less capacity with greater speed. Flash boosts performance and enables companies to reap benefits like reduced power consumption and consolidated apps per machine.Initially quite expensive, flash storage had been used reservedly, such as for subsets of application data. Although improvements and efficiencies in the technology have resulted in lower prices, there are still cases where using hard disk drives (HDDs) is either more efficient or more economical. And this is why we’re now seeing the emergence of hybrid flash storage solutions.Let’s take a look at the options.All-flash arraysTo read this article in full, please click here
Although much of the initial excitement for blockchain technology centered around bitcoin and financial services, it’s quickly showing applicability to other areas for increased business value.For example, Walmart has invested in blockchain to improve its supply chain operations. In initial tests, the retailer says the technology reduced the time it takes to track food as it moves from farms to stores — from six days to two seconds.That’s all due to the decentralized nature of blockchain. It’s often referred to as a distributed consensus model, consisting of nodes or blocks of encrypted information. Each node contains the exact same data and transaction history, and that information is secured with cryptographed hashes and digital signatures.To read this article in full, please click here
Digital transformation requires companies to be nimbler, more proactive, and more responsive to customers. Our always-on culture has begotten the need for always-available data.Meanwhile, the tolerance for downtime continues to plummet. Whether it’s a bank customer conducting a financial transaction or a salesperson submitting an order, a processing delay is no longer acceptable. An interruption like this sets off an IT scramble to determine how to fix that “app-data gap” — i.e., what’s causing delays in data delivery to applications.To alleviate the app-data gap and improve data-center operations, many organizations have turned to flash storage, which speeds delivery and improves performance. And while it does provide much-improved efficiency and speed than traditional hard drive disk storage, flash alone doesn’t solve other problems like configuration and interoperability issues that cause the app-data gap.To read this article in full, please click here
The emergence of data-heavy applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has upped the enterprise storage ante. Combined with the data in apps used daily to run the business, the limits of storage are being stretched.Yet having to continually procure storage capacity doesn’t make sense; forward-looking CIOs and IT decision makers must future-proof their investments. Here’s what to consider.
Performance
Digital business will constantly evolve, meaning organizations will need to deploy applications and services as business needs change or new objectives emerge.To read this article in full, please click here
Without an agile, flexible, and secure network infrastructure, organizations are in danger of falling behind competitors. That’s why many organizations are seeking to transform their businesses with cloud computing and hybrid cloud environments that are more adaptive and flexible. Software-defined networks (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) can ease that path, but it requires automation along with intelligence that understands and can even predict what users and organizations want and need to do.Digital transformation has quickly moved beyond hype to become one of the top business imperatives. “Digital transformation is forcing companies to be agile and move with speed, and the network needs to be equally agile and fast,” writes industry analyst Zeus Kerravala. “The separation of control and data planes enables control to be abstracted away from the device and centralized so a network administrator can issue a change that is propagated instantly across the entire network.”To read this article in full, please click here
For traditional Communications Service Providers (CSPs), the barriers to applying automation are coming down faster than ever before due to the use of new technologies such as analytics and machine learning. So, what is different, and why is now the time to act?The three V’s of automationWithin most traditional Operations Support System (OSS) projects there is an established methodology for identifying the environments best suited for automation. People use different names for these network automation target areas, but I like to refer to them as The Three V’s. These are:WHITE PAPERTo read this article in full, please click here
The networking industry is being disrupted. There is an explosion in network demand, driven by ultra-mobile users who want the ability to access the cloud and consume high-definition content, video, and applications when and where they choose. This network disruption will only continue in the future with the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G—both of which require billions of devices to interact with machines, users, and the cloud to drive consumer and business interactions.As a result, network providers must prepare for an industry transformation that will create new opportunities. We sat down with Ciena’s Rebecca Prudhomme, VP of Portfolio Marketing, to address what network providers need to do to seize these opportunities. To read this article in full, please click here
Windstream made its SDN move by implementing Ciena’s Blue Planet to automate how it delivers wavelength services across its multi-vendor optical network -- setting the stage for the provider to virtualize network functions to enhance service activation and delivery times. Operational efficiency and customer experience are crucial to Windstream's success in the USA, but its heterogeneous network footprint can make network service provisioning and device configuration complex and costly. Building a programmable SDN-based network with Ciena's Blue Planet software is helping Windstream simplify operations, move to DevOps-centric processes, and create an extensible platform for new services.To read this article in full, please click here
Among the vertical industries most impacted by technological change in the past three to five years is K-12 education. This is often overlooked, but the move to becoming digital is truly changing the game for school districts. Changes wrought by extensive device use, distance learning, and emerging technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality require that K-12 schools dramatically overhaul their approach to IT. In many ways, the IT need at schools has similar or greater demands for availability, reliability, and scalability to support new applications than what is seen in other industries. However, the rapid rate of change that has occurred in K-12 is exceptional. There are some important lessons that we can learn from the “high speed” that IT professionals and administrators are responding to.To read this article in full, please click here
Today’s digital economy depends entirely on the speed and reliability of the networks across which information flows. And while it has become cliché to say the demands on the network are increasing, the facts bear this out: the number of Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices is set to triple—to 27 billion devices—over the next 10 years. Cellular connections will grow even more over the same period, by 85 percent to 2.2 billion, according to a recent study by Machina Research.1The way customers use the network is also changing. The rise in popularity of cloud services is growing by double digits every year, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS), which Gartner predicts will grow by 36.8 and 20.1 percent, respectively, this year alone. Users expect to be able to access these cloud services on any device, from any location and at any time, which places greater demand on the network both in terms of traffic volume as well as increased performance and reliability requirements.To read this article in full, please click here
Mobile devices. The data center. The WAN. All are players in the move to a software-defined industry that gives network operators more control, programmability and responsiveness to business needs.The momentum behind the shift to Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) has seen organizations embrace the benefits and advantages offered by software and virtualization—benefits that center around agility, flexibility, and adaptability. This shift significantly changes how networks are built and operated, as well as how services are created and delivered. An increasingly critical component of any network, software helps meet evolving end-user demands for greater programmability and openness.To read this article in full, please click here
The promise of cloud services as the means of delivering applications and services is quite attractive. However, in the rush to adopt cloud services, a few myths have been created that can lead to bad decisions and botched implementations. One myth that has created more problems than most is the belief that, by using the cloud, a company doesn’t have to worry about its on-premises IT infrastructure or the support systems for it.The assertion that cloud service providers “handle everything” is not really true. They provide access to the services as long as your equipment can get you to their data center. While this may reduce the load on your servers and potentially your storage hardware, in many instances using the cloud creates a need for new networking hardware to support much higher wide-area network (WAN) utilization both in terms of number of users and the amount of data traffic. When companies want to use multiple network carriers for cost, reliability, and performance issues, the result may be more network hardware than initially expected.To read this article in full, please click here
Check out our webinar series – hear from industry analysts to learn about the Adaptive Network and gain insights on network transformation at the speed of business.Live Webinar: Harness the Power of Automation through Intent-Based Policy Date / Time: Tuesday, April 17, 2018, 11:00 a.m. New York/ 4:00 p.m. LondonOverview:Network providers are struggling to keep pace with escalating demand. Rapid traffic increases and the threat of network performance failures have put a premium on automation. But it's important for providers to maintain control of their networks as they automate. How can an automation platform help remove obstacles and still give the control providers need to accelerate the business?To read this article in full, please click here
Extreme Networks recently released a new report, “Quantifying the Value of the New Extreme Networks Solution” (an Enterprise Strategy Group Economic Value Validation report), to show the IT community how deploying our new solution can generate ROI and slash costs significantly, particularly in comparison with other network vendors.When we embarked on this journey, our goal was to make the resources of our organization part of the package. Customers should have access to a comprehensive network solution that goes beyond solving their immediate technology problems and extends into cost savings and economic benefit opportunities, period. This is why we engaged ESG to execute their Economic Value Audit process—to show you how you can realize unparalleled savings through Extreme.To read this article in full, please click here
A recently prepared report by IDC focuses on the practical solutions for bringing enhanced automation, security and visibility into the campus network and shares the trends that are impacting them.One trend we’ve observed during the evolution of digital transformation is seeing network workloads increase significantly, parallel to the significance of the network itself. Since business is centered on a fast-paced, on-demand culture, it’s only natural that major changes in networking technology are taking hold.To read this article in full, please click here
There is nothing like a looming deadline to get people motivated. For the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), May 25 is that deadline. A sweeping new data privacy regulation, GDPR will soon come into effect across the European Union (EU). In practice, however, it affects any company or organization conducting business or operations in the EU (whether through a physical presence there or offering goods and services to EU residents) that collects and processes EU residents’ data. Its goal is to better protect and empower EU residents’ data privacy, and it represents the most significant change in data privacy laws in more than 20 years. For businesses too, it will be a watershed moment in how they process, handle and manage data, with heavy fines on the table for non-compliance.To read this article in full, please click here
In a report entitled , Gartner discusses the widespread preparation for 5G networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), and machine-to-machine communications. These technologies are preparing to support a worldwide customer base that looks forward to smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and high-speed multimedia over broadband anywhere and anytime. To read this article in full, please click here
Best-of-breed strategies have long since fallen out of favor in the enterprise, because the work required to stitch together the components proved to be too difficult. But best of breed is back with cloud. Companies today are hell-bent on buying the ideal SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS cloud services for the job, and while APIs make the integration work easier, the resultant cloud silos create a new challenge: How do you assure service performance in this multi-cloud world?The short answer: By maintaining global knowledge of what is happening (and where) across IT infrastructure, applications, and services. But we’ll get back to that.Companies use eight cloud providers on average, according to IHS Markit Ltd., a research firm in London. IHS’ survey of 155 companies in a range of industries shows that number swelling to 11 within two years. When you include any and all SaaS services, the average number of cloud applications that companies use explodes to almost 1,500, by some counts. To read this article in full, please click here
By now, it's pretty clear that cloud migration can yield big benefits. In fact, a recent survey from research firm ESG found that nearly 40% of respondents said migrating reduced data center build-out costs. It also increases resource elasticity and speeds up service provisioning.Reaping those benefits is by no means a sure thing, however. To attain cloud migration nirvana, companies must successfully navigate a host of challenges, including retaining visibility and control over service quality and performance.To read this article in full, please click here
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