The forgotten LAN (Guest blog by NTT Ltd)
Is there no one in IT talking about the local area network (LAN) anymore? Those who do are just about regarded as denizens of an old-school IT dungeon.
Sure, on the surface, the LAN isn’t as exciting as the software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN), secure access service edge (SASE), edge computing, Wi-Fi and private 5G – although all these rapidly developing technologies form part of the complexity of the LAN equation.
As organizations expand globally and start dissecting and transforming their LANs piece by piece to introduce new software and other technologies, they gain agility but face the challenges of much more complex network management, new security gaps and soaring costs. For this reason, organizations that are chasing the industry 4.0 dream are struggling to realize the promise of an edge-to-cloud strategy, delivered globally and securely.
There is also a misconception that once you have deployed SD-WAN, you’ve got a modern network in place. This myopic view ignores the full scope of enhancing the user experience in your enterprise environment; it may even remain inferior to your employees’ work-from-home set-up.
Ask the following questions when you’re considering the future of your network:
- What is the true impact of our technical debt and can embracing network as a service get us out of the current cycle?
- Should I adopt AIOps to predict incident anomalies or continue with traditional ITIL incident management?
- How can I orchestrate the disaggregation of network functions to realise unrealized impactful potential?
The answers are to be found in the familiar concept of network architecture as a single network that includes routing and switching across the campus, carpeted or uncarpeted.
One of the fundamental success criteria for the performance and security of a global enterprise network is that all its segments and underlying functions work in harmony. Network strategies are focused on cost-effective connectivity to the public cloud, with SD-WAN and internet as priorities. Additional security requirements have also brought SASE and edge-to-cloud architectures to the forefront.
Yet, these approaches are often not in sync with the warehouse, factory or branch network architecture. Additionally, service-portal functionality that allows you to manage the technology across locations and applications may be integrated with the application programming interface (API) but still be misaligned from a WAN, LAN and network security perspective. The LAN spans your entire network ecosystem, including routing and switching across your data centers, offices, branches and factories. So, any change to its architecture has broader implications for the entire network. If you deploy loosely coupled SD-WAN concepts to make your network more agile and software-driven, you may disrupt the harmony of your entire network, including the LAN.
Imagine having a single service dashboard that brings your network and security functions together, helping you to eliminate gaps and overlaps so you can reduce your technical debt and improve security – all delivered globally as a service.
NTT’s managed campus platform is AI-driven and works in a multifaceted way to manage your various network technologies (Wi-Fi, private 5G, data center switching, SD-WAN routing and more) and services through a single pane-of-glass dashboard that can be integrated with your own IT service dashboard.
We can already predict and alert you to anomalies on your network and link together multiple data points to recommend a solution – and our platform is getting smarter every day. We already support more than 35 network-technology vendors, a number that keeps rising. Apart from the removal of excessive noise from the network, with the vast majority of incidents being resolves autonomously, it rapidly addresses the skills shortages that so many are facing?
Having such powerful predictive capabilities at your disposal across your network means you can focus on what you’re best at – your core business.
Contact us now to learn more about NTT’s Managed Campus Networks or email the author.
This guest blog was written by Atul Awasthi Director of Networking services for NTT UK&I. Atul works with senior teams in organisations looking at their corporate goals and aspirations around Network Transformation with a goal of maximising the end customer digital experience. His objective is to SIMPLIFY the Digital transformation investment decision-making and reduce the further risk in that journey by onboarding customers to NTT’s AIOps Platform capabilities.
Join techUK in 2023 for an exciting series of techUK talks with tech leaders from across the country exploring how we can use technology to build a better future for the UK’s economy, people, society, and the planet. On 23 March our guest is Vivek K. Daga, Managing Director in the UK and Ireland of NTT Limited. techUK CEO Julian David will explore Vivek’s long experience of leading tech businesses in the UK, and discuss what success looks like in 2023.