IT professionals and network administrations spend significant time and resources to address and successfully gain full network visibility. Insight into a network is critical when making IT purchasing decisions and troubleshooting. Networks administrators that can quickly assess network visibility can more quickly address problems and eliminate downtime.
Over the past few years, network visibility has become difficult as networks have become more complex. As such, it is important to understand the trends that have led to increased complexity:
Fluid Networks
New technologies are constantly emerging to meet business needs without sacrificing cost efficiency or speed. Therefore, today’s networks are constantly changing, on demand, to meet application and service needs.
Distributed Workforce and Globalization
Telework Research Network reports that 20-30 million Americans will work from home at least once a week in 2013.With companies relying more and more on employees who work remotely, businesses are relying heavily on web access that allows personnel to access data from anywhere, anytime.
BYOD and the Consumerization of IT
With the rise of the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend, employees expect to have network access from their personal devices as well as business. According to an April 2013 Gartner report, an estimated 1.8 billion mobile phones will be sold this year, with the market growing slightly to 2.1 billion by 2017.The use of personal devices provides convenience, but can also lead to security risks and bandwidth bottlenecks. The network administrator must balance IT infrastructure security with user demands while managing more devices.
Cloud Computing and Virtual Environments
In many cases companies are using cloud environments to store their data. Gartner reports that global spending on public cloud services is expected to grow to $110.3 billion through 2016.As cloud computing and converged infrastructure reshape corporate data centers, network complexity increases and network administrators must carefully monitor and manage connectivity and WAN optimization.
VoIP and Unified Communications
Applications that are designed to foster collaboration and user productivity, such as real-time data, social networks, VoIP or unified communications, are bandwidth hogs with high potential to disrupt the performance of other business-critical applications. As more of these applications are incorporated into a network, IT professionals need to carefully review network bandwidth usage and requirements to ensure uptime of all applications.
With better awareness of these trends, network administrators can determine if such scenarios are in place within their IT environments to then identify the tools and strategies to gain network visibility regardless of complexity. For more information on the current trends affecting network complexity and best practices for visibility, download Dell’s complimentary complete whitepaper: “Visualizing Network Health: How to Drive Visibility into Complex Infrastructures”.