A recent report shows that only 34% of network management professionals are completely satisfied with the tools and processes they use for network configuration management. That is a strong indicator of a tumultuous set up for the year ahead.
Most enterprise IT organizations struggle with network and cloud infrastructure configuration management and worry that their networks will fail configuration compliance audits. This issue is amplified as enterprise network engineers continue to take the ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ approach to network infrastructure management. With that said, companies are beginning to demand more from their networks. Enterprise IT organizations are seeking out solutions that will enable them to be more agile and secure. As a result, infrastructure and operations teams are turning to network automation solutions.
The top challenge that organizations face with network automation is a lack of personnel with sufficient expertise to oversee automation initiatives and poor IT leadership. When looking towards the year 2022, IT and networking teams must keep a careful watch around specific trends including networking hero culture, the ongoing impact of 5G, and Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Networking, among prominent others.
#1: 5G will allow enterprises to push further to the network edge
The spread of 5G will further shift the focus of enterprise investments away from centralized architectures. As 5G networking becomes more widespread, enterprises are looking to embrace the opportunity to push their applications further to the edge of the network, allowing them to realize enhanced performance and new monetization models. Network modernization initiatives serve to provide the foundation for enterprises to expand their application capabilities, push services closer to end users and optimize service delivery performance. In order for these initiatives to be successful, enterprises are shifting away from manual processes in order to fully embrace 5G technology through the expansion of advanced capabilities like automation and network slicing.
#2: Network slicing will be key in the move into 5G
Network slicing capabilities will be critical to monetizing the benefits of 5G - however, establishing end-to-end slicing will remain a challenge. For instance, mobile providers who are moving toward edge computing often work with third-party providers to hyperscale and augment strategies. When a third-party provider is present, mobility providers need to coordinate with these parties and agree on the level of exposure and participation that can be committed to, in order to implement network slice management properly.
Businesses need to modify their operations and consider new technology that supports this function. For mobile providers and telecom companies, 5G slicing solutions need automation to integrate with solutions that enable edge computing to provide services to customers - whether they partner with an existing cloud provider like Microsoft Azure, or they build their own edge compute infrastructure. For enterprise consumers of these 5G services, they will also want to use automation to manage these services in response to business demands.
#3: Hybrid and multi-cloud networking will require a horizontal approach
Horizontal investments across organizations must become a priority for a successful transition to cloud-based infrastructures. When investing in new IT infrastructures, IT leaders typically build up their modernization programs “vertically” within each department. However, this creates a gap between teams, as each is operating in separate models and functionalities – driving up unnecessary costs and inefficient business practices. Looking towards 2022, IT leaders will be focused on successfully aligning their hybrid and multi-cloud initiatives for increased operational efficiency. In doing so, more must lean towards a “horizontal” approach, uprooting traditional processes across all departments, and deploying cloud-native tools on a wider organizational scale to reduce time and stress.
#4: Compliance across modern cloud networking
Automated network compliance is needed now more than ever due to the widespread push for digital transformation across industries. Now and looking forward, the goal of the network engineer and supporting IT staff needs to be ensuring the cloud is properly configured and managed to enable businesses to realize the full benefits of the cloud and automated processes as they move into the next era of IT advancements. Network engineers need to extend their process of compliance and validation for network changes as a preventative measure rather than purely a reactive one to cloud services. And automation for compliance management across multi-cloud domains can be used to ensure operational consistency across the entire network infrastructure. Automation can also be used to maintain compliance by validating any proposed changes before they are applied.
#5: 2022 will not need anymore network heroes
There will be an increasing need to empower network engineers to move past “hero” culture, and drive value by using new and innovative cloud technologies. Over the past few years, C-Suite executives and high level directors have struggled to tie their business goals to investments in internal infrastructure management - and as a result, stunted the modernization of their IT/engineering departments. With network engineers still operating under the same mindset as when they first entered the industry, they’ve continued to value their contributions based on individual commands (serving as modern day heroes by resolving IT issues on a case-by-case basis) versus utilizing evolving new strategies. In 2022, network engineers will be encouraged to embrace innovative cloud programs/technologies as part of their “value-driving” contributions, which will grow closer in line with overall business success.
There is much to look forward to in the year ahead, and that includes the evolution of the networking industry as it adapts to deliver on the increased demands for operational success. Organizations will benefit from staying ahead of such demands by taking the time to understand how the above trends will impact their own network and continued organizational growth.
