As enterprise networks become more complex, the industry must develop new technologies to adapt to growing business needs.
Sessions at the ONUG Fall 2023 Conference in New York City highlight this evolution, with presentations from analysts, service providers, and vendors focusing on network trends such as private 5G, network-as-a-service (NaaS), and network automation. Did. Speakers discussed the importance of these methodologies and how organizations can leverage them to support new use cases.
Private 5G best practices
Private 5G was one of the most discussed networking trends at this year’s conference. Several sessions focused on private 5G drivers, use cases, and benefits. Highway9 Networks CEO Allwyn Sequeira said early adopters have enabled connectivity in the oil and manufacturing industries, but private 5G can also support other sectors such as transportation, healthcare and education.
Sequeira said interest in private 5G is growing as enterprises look to gain more control over their networks, increase security and improve coverage. However, for private 5G to support these additional industries, organizations will need to integrate private 5G connectivity with existing network resources such as policy, security, LAN, and WAN, he added.
“It needs to fit into the IT processes that are in place,” he said, adding that this integration will allow organizations to utilize private 5G in a more holistic way.
Simplify operations with NaaS
According to Luc Boivin, Verizon’s managing director of 5G and enterprise solutions, network professionals are struggling with network complexity. Factors such as the convergence of networking and security and the introduction of software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) are increasing the level of network complexity, and NaaS has the potential to simplify that challenge, Boivin said. states.
Adopting NaaS doesn’t mean established technologies like MPLS and SD-WAN go away, but enterprises will use them differently. According to Khalid Raza, founder and CEO of Graphiant, NaaS combines the best features of his SD-WAN and MPLS (policy control and ubiquitous connectivity, respectively) and eliminates business complexity.
NaaS providers that manage networks for enterprise customers also manage complexity while organizations can maintain the level of control they need to run their businesses, Boivin said.
“When a business is too complex, it becomes difficult to innovate,” Boivin says. ”[NaaS brings] The ability to focus on the enablers of innovation. NaaS should provide connectivity not only to where the workloads run, but also to an ecosystem of technology partners that can be incorporated into the network. ”
Approach to network automation
As increasing network complexity and security vulnerabilities make network management more difficult, automation can alleviate some of the challenges, according to Tom Whaley, chief technical advisor at World Wide Technology. . But Whaley said it can be difficult for businesses to achieve network automation because few network professionals have experience with it.
Ernest Leffner, Gluware’s chief product officer, said some network professionals struggle to automate basic network management tasks, such as identifying network changes and remediating problems. According to Lefner, ready-to-use network automation tools can make network automation more accessible.
Ready-to-use tools can improve ROI and increase uptime, Whaley said. However, there is still some value in building network automation tools, he added, and organizations may benefit from both building and buying network automation. He said companies can use preconfigured tools to assist with more complex processes, or build in-house tools to help integrate workflows and monitor application performance.
