To survive and thrive in this digital age, enterprises have only one option: to modernise their network infrastructure
Enterprises that have embarked on digital transformation initiatives quickly discover their existing networks can’t deliver the experiences today’s users demand—nor are they nimble enough to address evolving requirements.
These constraints intensify at the edge, where IoT and workforce mobility is driving an exponential increase in the number of devices that connect to corporate networks.
The amount of data at the edge also grows by orders of magnitude. By 2025, 75 per cent of data will be generated and processed outside a centralised data centre or cloud, making it more difficult for IT to balance data availability and security demands.
To survive and thrive in this digital age, enterprises have only one option: to modernise their network infrastructure. Take the first step toward modernisation by exploring the seven key requirements to design and deploy a next-gen, edge-ready network.
Requirement 1: Prepare for IoT and Wi-Fi 6 with data centre-class performance at the edge
Corporate networks are becoming inundated with IoT devices and bandwidth-hungry apps. Factor in the emergence of Wi-Fi 6, where access points can support more devices at up to four times the throughput, and legacy switches at the edge inevitably become oversubscribed.
Modern networks need switches based on a non-blocking architecture to deliver wire-speed performance and offer an easy, robust solution for high availability. While common in data centre infrastructure, these capabilities have become more critical at the edge, where tolerance for a performance hiccup is nearly zero.
Optimise the use of every switch port to deliver seamless, best-in-class user experiences, take full advantage of Wi-Fi 6 and IoT, help prevent bottlenecks, and ensure critical apps always have adequate bandwidth.
Requirement 2: Accommodate tomorrow’s demands with strong investment protection
The average lifecycle of a network switch is 5 to 7 years. Choosing infrastructure that provides strong investment protection is imperative to supporting today’s needs and the unpredictable future demands.
While your edge network may only require 10GbE uplinks at the access and aggregation layers, IoT and Wi-Fi 6 may force you to scale up to 25 or even 50GbE uplinks.
Invest in solutions that provide flexible uplinks and support multi-gig Ethernet to help boost speeds on existing switch ports and over existing cabling, keeping costs down and limiting business disruptions.
Requirement 3: Reduce costs with high-density, always-on PoE
For any enterprise deploying wired IoT devices and Wi-Fi 6, having reliable, high Power over Ethernet (PoE) is non-negotiable.
High PoE wattage on every switch port lowers costs by dramatically reducing the need for extra cabling to power these modern devices. Always-on PoE ensures critical devices—such as surveillance cameras or healthcare monitors—remain powered, even during scheduled reboots or firmware upgrades. Also, using hot-swappable, modular power supplies will help increase the available PoE power without costly switch hardware replacement.
Requirement 4: Simplify network security with dynamic segmentation
The network edge must be smart enough to connect all devices and users securely. Relying on VLANs, ACLs, and subnets to properly segment the network is too time-consuming and error-prone.
Instead, look for a networking solution like dynamic segmentation that can automatically enforce user- and device-based policies across both wired and wireless infrastructure.
Centralised management and enforcement of network policies saves time, reduces mistakes, and bolsters security while ensuring users of all types—guests, employees, or customers—have convenient, reliable access to the correct network resources.
Requirement 5: Simplify operations for any-sized networking team with automation
Many organisations have embraced DevOps principles to build and release new or updated applications at a faster pace. To maximise the success of these efforts, the network needs to be as agile as the software it supports.
Build the right foundation for your modern network with an operating system that provides a cloud-like operational experience and augments your automation framework.
- For larger organisations, the key is open APIs and building custom scripts to integrate with third-party systems.
- Teams with DevOps practices should consider extending existing automation platforms such as Ansible to support network-related workflows.
- Smaller teams that lack dedicated development resources should seek turnkey solutions to simplify everyday tasks, where compliance with network policies and device dependencies are instantly validated.
Requirement 6: Quickly detect and resolve user-impacting issues with distributed analytics
When network issues arise, operators need immediate insight into where the problem is occurring and why. Unfortunately, traditional network monitoring and troubleshooting approaches are highly reactive and resource-intensive. As a result, user-impacting issues often persist far longer than they should.
Gaining real-time visibility into every network node is critical, particularly in far-flung locations with little to no onsite technical support. Built-in intelligence can preprocess telemetry of interest at the edge, correlate it to the likely root cause, and send an alert with all the relevant diagnostics to a centralised operations team. This allows IT to readily detect, respond to, and even pre-empt problems that impact network health, often before users notice the issue.
Requirement 7: Drive operational excellence from edge to data centre with a single operating model
Traditional networks are hampered by fragmented operations that lead to insurmountable complexity, higher operational costs, and management headaches, including:
- Different teams often manage different architectures, operating models, and management tools across various network domains.
- Separate operating systems with different software requirements, often requiring complex, subscription-based licensing schemes.
Implementing a single, end-to-end operating model can:
- Reduce complexity with a unified, end-to-end architecture that spans from edge access to the data centre
- Reduce costs by replicating network designs across multiple domains
- Promote tighter collaboration among traditionally siloed networking teams by leveraging a common operating system and toolset
The modern network: Your competitive edge is waiting
Digitising operations at the enterprise edge is key to unlocking new growth opportunities. Organisations like yours can outpace the competition by deploying an edge-ready network that satisfies today’s technology demands while providing scalability and flexibility to address future needs.
If you liked reading this, you might like our other stories
How to Position Your Organisation for Success With Cloud
Five SD-WAN Trends In The Post COVID Era
