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2022 Predictions: Moving from the Era of Digital Transformation to Continual Transformation

2022 Predictions: Moving from the Era of Digital Transformation to Continual Transformation Image Credit: Your_photo/Bigstockphoto.com

The past two years have seen the enterprise IT market pivot. In the face of business disruption, digital transformation became a necessity, and cloud solutions surged as the world connected in new ways. While the transformation seen in 2020 was in the face of a global lockdown, 2021 saw more developed strategies as businesses continued to evolve their operations and technologies.

It is no longer just about digital transformation, but about building a foundation for continual transformation and adapting to the new way of work. The pace of change in today’s market has made it crucial to continually evolve and optimise the technologies that keep businesses competitive.

2022 will be defined by the technologies that enable long-term evolution and transformation for businesses on a global scale. As multi-cloud becomes the new norm and a growing number of solutions evolve with software at the core, organisations have a chance to continue to shape their business plans and make the most of new technologies with a more strategic approach.

From clouds and networks, to 5G, automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and security, here are some predictions for some of the key trends that will transform the networking and technology market in 2022:

#1: Hybrid multi-cloud is the new norm

In today’s cloud-first world, it is no longer just about connecting to the cloud, but connecting between multiple clouds with greater efficiency. We are way past the adoption phase and businesses have already started to understand the benefits of using private, direct connections to the cloud.

In 2022, the way that organisations manage these clouds across their infrastructure will continue to change. Visibility and security are becoming higher priorities, and there’s a focus on integrated security vs standalone security and hardware (appliances) or software.

Within this hybrid multi-cloud management, more and more enterprises will be using software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN) for managing access and connectivity for remote workers, offices, branches, clouds and data centres. IT is being challenged on cost vs efficiency with an increasingly distributed workforce.

Remote working will continue to increase as organisations reap greater benefits in productivity and efficiency, which will further accelerate the adoption of cloud services in their long-term transformation strategies.

#2: Costs will continue to drive MPLS to SD-WAN transition

On the topic of SD-WAN, 2022 will also see an even larger shift from MPLS to SD-WAN.

TeleGeography’s latest WAN Manager Survey found that MPLS usage across enterprises dropped by 24% between 2018 and 2020, while SD-WAN saw a 25% growth in the same period.

When looking into their continual transformation strategies, enterprises are seeking more agile ways to maintain or even improve control and security across their networks at lower costs. In the long run, SD-WAN can simplify the WAN infrastructures and help businesses better manage multiple locations and cloud-hosted applications with app-driven security features.   

#3: Software, automation, analytics and AI

In terms of compliance, regulations can already be challenging for enterprises. In the coming year, we can expect an increasing number of complex regulations for enterprises to manage.

In the face of this, we will see an ongoing push towards software-based solutions with analytics, automation, and AI to address compliance. By approaching them with deep insights, advanced technologies and evolving intelligence, enterprises can better overcome compliance challenges and re-focus their energy into other aspects of their business such as innovation and continual transformation.

A growing number of organisations will also seek to adopt various Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) solutions for added flexibility, scalability and cost-efficiency in their long-term strategies. This will see many services being automated to replace manual processes for repetitive tasks– such as the deployment of network services using Network-as-a-Service (NaaS).

XaaS will enable enterprises to use whatever solution they need without heavy upfront investments or in-house specialists, making it a sustainable option for their continual transformation roadmaps. With this in mind, businesses will need to ensure that these applications are integrated across the business with the use of SD-WAN and cloud networking solutions.

2022 will also see a growing focus on designing and tailoring applications to the specific business needs of customers. As the business environment becomes increasingly complex, it will become even more important to serve the unique needs of enterprises with expert support and unique solutions.

#4: The 5G future is now

As more companies transition to become cloud-first, the importance of having the right underlay network to support them is essential. They need a simple, efficient, and effective way to connect their enterprise ÍT infrastructure around the world to network ecosystems and interconnection services.

In 2022, an interesting 5G use case could be utilising it for more last mile connectivity. 5G removes the last mile barrier with rapid speeds and lower latencies, improving connectivity performance for enterprises end-to-end, even in the most challenging locations.

Since it’s a wireless technology, 5G could also overcome the provisioning and deployment issues often seen with last mile access. Enterprises can instantly get the connectivity they need, where they need it, without needing to wait for physical connections to go live, and without the risk of physical disturbances. It reduces risk, while increasing performance and efficiency into the future.

#5: Risk management will switch from reactive to proactive

The new year will also see an increasing focus on data security, due to not only the growth in the number of security breaches, but also the rising costs associated with them. A single hack can be enough to severely affect an enterprise’s bottom line as well as reputation. Having the right precautions and business continuity processes in place is vital for long-term success and brand confidence.

As a result, we can expect to see a proactive reduction of risk, as risk management switches from reactive to proactive. More organisations will be seeking business continuity solutions that can guarantee 24x7x365 protection and provide the necessary steps to move forward with confidence in the face of a breach.

The move to the cloud will off-load some security issues to cloud providers, but that may simply increase the uncertainly over who is responsible for securing client data. The most important thing is guaranteeing that client data is handled with the utmost care, all year round.

As a result, we can expect not only enterprises to seek more security solutions, but also for all kinds of service providers to implement and integrate higher security measures and solutions into their offerings for customers. These service providers will also likely set up and invest in customer experience functions that focus on service delivery, user satisfaction, and other value-added services.

Ultimately, 2022 will be an interesting year for all kinds of businesses. Enterprises have an opportunity to advance their operations with leading edge technologies, and service providers have the chance to improve customer experience and win more business by offering comprehensive solutions to customers.

Whether it’s cloud, SD-WAN, automation, AI, 5G or security, the coming year will allow more organisations to hone what is needed to enable continual transformation, and in turn, reach new levels of success in the long-term.

Author

Simon is the Regional Director, EMEA & US at Epsilon. He leads the region’s sales and business development activities including channel partnership and enterprise sales. Simon has over 22 years of experience in IP data sales with a proven history of building successful sales teams, developing new markets and closing high value opportunities.

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