Network Trends For Smart Real-Time Computing - TailWind

As enterprises invest in wired, wireless, and cloud technology that drives new business initiatives and an enhanced customer experience, the network is evolving to accommodate a more intelligent edge. A recent survey identified network trends demonstrating a shift to edge-focused management.

The State of the Network survey, conducted by Network World, included findings from 268 respondents with varying IT duties, including application development, telecommunications, data analytics and cloud services, among others.

The survey found that computing is moving closer to the edge, giving users increased ability to analyze data in real time. 56% of respondents said that they have plans to implement edge computing in their organizations. The benefit of edge computing is that the data doesn’t need to be transmitted back over the network to the data center for processing or analysis. Edge networking includes all the small-form elements of compute storage and network in a local device.

Edge computing was just one of the network trends dominating responses in the survey. The other emerging technology that’s on the minds of enterprise IT executives is the shift to intent-based networking (IBN), which allows administrators to define what the network should do using intelligent software, analytics and automation.

While IBN is a relatively new and emerging technology, the concept is gaining traction quickly, with over half (54%) of respondents indicating that they are familiar with the concept. One-third of these respondents work at enterprises with budgets of over $1 billion.

The report also found that 8% are currently executing an IBN strategy, using software-defined networking (SDN), machine learning and virtualization. Many more (38%) don’t have a specific strategy in place but plan to initiate research into the project in the next year.

Applying SDN continues to be one of the hotter network trends, with 11% currently working on implementation and 10% reporting that they are in the pilot phase with SDN. A subset of SDN, software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) is also an increasingly adopted technology, giving enterprises the ability to virtualize the network and optimize performance with automated pathway distribution.

Other major network trends emerging include:

• Security as a top priority, with 61% of IT professionals expecting their security budget to increase, along with budget for cloud services and application development.
• Internet of Things (IoT) investment may be stalling out just a bit, with 46% planning to increase investment in the next one to three years, and 32% reporting no plans to implement IoT technology in the future.
• While 61% report using an on-site data center, 29% are making plans to shift their data storage to the cloud within the next two years. There is still hesitation about moving everything to the cloud at once, perhaps because of perceived security threats.

TailWind is staying on top of the latest network trends to help you leverage the most effective technology solutions for your enterprise. Find out more about how you can consolidate your technology vendors, receive unmatched field technician service, and offload the management of your hardware by contacting us at TailWind.