How Network Technology Shifts Are Changing the Way Things Are Done

No one could have predicted how the COVID-19 pandemic would affect business and quicken the growth of certain technologies, including network technologies. The transition to remote work led to higher adoption of virtual private networks, multi-factor authentication, virtual desktop, and unified communications and collaboration, among other things.

Perhaps most noteworthy was the rapid rise in broadband usage. Usage had been steadily increasing over the last decade, but the pandemic and subsequently distributed work environment expedited the climb. As evidence, OpenVault reported in its “Broadband Insights Report” for the third quarter of 2020 that broadband usage rose 40% over 2019.

Internet of things implementations were another example. According to Nemertes Research, more than 46% of IoT projects were in full deployment in 2020, compared to only 7% the previous year. That growth can be attributed to the IoT’s ability to improve the supply chain and generate value and return on investment. The Vodafone “IoT Spotlight 2020” report found that an impressive 73% of mature IoT adopters said their implementation of IoT technology led to a “significant return on investment.”

While the growth of broadband and IoT is compelling, there were also a host of other transformative network technology trends in 2020, including an accelerated shift to the cloud, adoption of multi-cloud architectures, major alterations to cybersecurity strategies and a rethinking of the wide-area networking.

Accelerated Move to the Cloud

Many businesses already had cloud strategies in place when COVID-19 hit. And they embraced the cloud, even more, to facilitate their employees working remotely. Flexera reported in its May “2020 State of the Cloud Report” that the majority (57%) of organizations had changed their cloud usage plans to be slightly or significantly higher than originally planned.

The cloud offers a way to cut expenses in the long term by shifting from a CapEx to an OpEx model and paying only for what’s used. However, organizations are still struggling to reign in cloud spending. According to the Flexera report, businesses are spending an average of 23% more on the cloud than they anticipated, and they expect to further increase that spending by 47% in 2021.

Thus, cloud optimization will be key moving forward. To optimize cloud spending, organizations will need to get a better handle on their usage patterns and the cloud resources they have in place. This will help them identify and consolidate unused virtual machines that are taking up bandwidth. Otherwise, those businesses will continue to pay for more than they use.

Embracing Multi-Cloud

Another way to optimize cloud spending is by adopting a multi-cloud strategy–that is, using more than one cloud computing and storage service in a single network architecture. This approach often includes a combination of public, private and edge clouds to ensure the best price for each workload.

The advantages of such a strategy include a wider array of options, optimal pricing, improved resilience, greater security and flexibility. According to the Flexera report, 93% of enterprises currently have a multi-cloud strategy in place.

For multi-cloud to be successful, businesses need to be well aware of the differences between clouds, including cost variances. They also need to keep close tabs on their cloud environments. One effective way to do that is through automated cloud management, either undertaken in-house or as a managed service provided by a third-party.

Security Shifts

Keeping data and users safe has always been a business priority. But the practice took on greater importance as workers left the office and moved to distributed models. IT departments could no longer control the computing environment and had to quickly pivot to be able to support expansive areas.

In fact, a conclusive 85% of chief information security officers conceded “they