The response from businesses to adapt to the conditions set out by COVID-19 has been nothing short of astounding.
Businesses all over the globe have embraced change in developing work-from-home solutions, with small cells of highly agile teams that are afforded more flexibility than any other workforce in human history. There has been an industry-wide push towards agility as a means of business survival, making the technology required to adapt becoming indispensable for organisations across all levels of operation. These changes have placed a greater emphasis on companies to revolutionise the way they design, configure, and implement their IT technology and digital infrastructure, in line with the requirements of a post-covid world.
To further help companies meet this transition with ease and awareness, we’ve tracked the 5 pivotal changes in business that are transforming the way we design networks.
Working From Home & Cloud Technology
We’ve known for some time that many jobs can be performed from home and COVID-19 has shown us just how true that is. With many developing home offices, there’s been an increased demand in secure access to digital resources.
As this trend continues, companies will become increasingly reliant on virtual network access to a company’s server data, information, applications, and other digital resources, namely in the form of cloud computing. Companies are already using a variety of cloud-based networks, but businesses looking to stay agile should consider using cloud services to a capacity best suited to their business model.
Sustainability & Development Goals
Companies looking to enact sustainable practices and policies across their supply chains and throughout their organisations are attempting to use data to make more informed decisions. The factors influencing these decisions require consistent connectivity and are often data-driven which has pushed companies towards investing in their digital infrastructure.
The pandemic has also forced organisations across every industry to develop scalable digital solutions to activities that could previously be delivered in person, particularly in the areas of education and government, which requires significant investment.
The requirement for increased speeds and these solutions specifically has given rise to new configurations such as future-proofing their networks to account for evolving growth or the downsizing of a company’s network.
A Greater Need for Cyber Security
The universal shift towards conducting business digitally has seen a rampant increase in cybersecurity issues and cyber-attacks. A reported rise in DDoS attacks by 15% has caught out many businesses, in addition to rises in ransomware and email-based scams by cybercriminals and potentially foreign state actors.
The increasing sophistication of hackers means that many devices are vulnerable and providing endpoint security is becoming decreasingly infeasible. In order to protect businesses from cybersecurity threats over the next few years, the central focus for security will be generated from protecting anything and everything that enters and exits the network.
A great way to protect your digital infrastructure is through investing into SDWAN security to help protect company data shared through your cloud network.
IoT & Edge Networking
The intense demands of businesses for current and future networks stem from data-rich insights developed from IoT devices and the information that can be tracked from them. With these devices again comes risks to security at the edge of the network, which prove to be a blind spot for businesses against threats like malware and ransomware. To supplement the ever-growing list of wearables, surveillance equipment and sensors, network providers will need to invest in technologies such as Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), which safeguards devices on the edge of the network. Companies like Versa offer SASE solutions that can be easily integrated to your business’ network infrastructure and protect it from unwanted threats.
Universal Demand for Video
The social isolation many people have experienced throughout lockdowns has pushed more video chat options across conferencing software, with massive uptakes in Zoom, Skype, Microsoft teams and Facetime leading video calling to become the status quo. With video being the new norm companies face no excuse for poor video quality, meaning fast connections with large bandwidth allocations are a necessity in the coming years.
If your business would like advice related to networking and emerging network solutions, get in contact with our experienced team or follow our blog for more information.
