For many companies facing demand from employees and customers alike to have connectivity access at all times, prioritizing WiFi performance is critical. Complicating matters is that it’s difficult to predict the performance of WiFi because there are so many variables involved. From operating conditions to application traffic demands and settings of WiFi products, network operators often struggle to pinpoint the source when there’s a performance issue. Fortunately, from the planning stage to … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2018
Why SDN and NFV Require Offloads
The use of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) was a promising solution to the stranglehold enterprises experienced related to network hardware. Rather than a vertical stack of pricey hardware, network administrators could access features and configuration settings at the software application level. Traditionally, networks have relied on a variety of often proprietary hardware solutions that involved a mix of gateways, routers, switches, load balancers … [Read more...]
Why IT Infrastructure Upgrades Are Essential
If you’re not prioritizing your infrastructure to support digital transformation, your competitors could soon leave you in the dust. IT infrastructure upgrades are proving essential for handling the data-driven, personalized customer experience that is becoming the expected standard. By investing in IT infrastructure upgrades that allow the harnessing of customer data, some enterprises are easily outpacing their competitors. Consider companies such as Lyft and Uber, who don’t own a fleet of … [Read more...]
Putting Data at the Center of IT Infrastructure
The volume and the importance of data are growing, and the generation of it is multiplying at an astounding rate. The challenge is that much of this data is being created at the edge of the network, and in general, IT infrastructure has not been built to handle the increased flow of data back to a central hub for processing. For data to be at the center of business, it should also be at the center of IT infrastructure. But instead, infrastructure has been built over time, with data siloed by … [Read more...]
The Attraction of Hybrid Cloud Migration
Even as success stories roll in of cost savings, improved agility and scalability in the cloud, some enterprises resist putting workloads in cloud environments, preferring the relative safety of on-site systems. The problem is that data is becoming a driving force in shaping business decisions, and in order to manage, analyze and gather insights from data, hybrid cloud migration is becoming the ideal solution. It’s about control and security. Even a large, global enterprise may resist moving … [Read more...]
The Network Edge Is Getting Harder to Define
Virtualization is continually expanding wide area network (WAN) architectures and changing the concept of the network edge. In short, it’s becoming difficult to define the edge and generalize when discussing it; every organization will have a unique edge concept. The edge’s redefinition is caused, in part, by a broader range of facilities, with customer premises equipment (CPE) adding hundreds of locations in a network. In some cases, the number may even be in the thousands. Adding to the … [Read more...]
Moving Forward With Edge Virtualization
As 5G becomes more of a reality and deployments become widespread, enabling service is going to rely heavily on edge virtualization. While this can answer a lot of the challenges of handling new levels of performance, volume and speed on the network, it can also cause problems if it is not architected properly. In many cases, edge virtualization can become more of a bottleneck, rather than helping the enterprise meet customer demands. As a result, operators taking their network capabilities … [Read more...]
Optimize Your WAN Configuration Before Installing UCaaS
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) can offer enterprises many benefits, including streamlined collaboration, a single-access application for all communication formats, and reduced maintenance costs. While these features make a compelling case for investing in UCaaS, it’s important to consider Wide Area Network (WAN) configuration before installation. More important than the particular type of circuit deployed is the WAN configuration chosen for UCaaS. It requires enough bandwidth to … [Read more...]