Digital Age Networking: Tools for successful transformation

Laurent Bouchoucha

August 28, 2019

The network you have may not be the network you need. Digital age technologies will take you into the digital era with the right network for your business.

It’s transformation time out there in the digital world and if your business is going to thrive, then the status quo is not an option. If you’re not moving forward you need to come up with a plan quickly, because there’s a stampede of users demanding connectivity and services, and a tsunami of Internet of Things (IoT) headed your way.

To stay ahead of the competition you will need a digital transformation strategy that improves your processes, differentiates your products and services, and better satisfies your customer and employee needs, all while increasing revenues and reducing costs. That’s a pretty tall order.

To get there from here you will need to introduce cloud and digital innovations into your operations, processes, and computing systems. And, you will need to augment your network intelligence to ensure you have your finger on the pulse of the network and that you are ready to combat any network attacks or degradation before they happen.

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise has developed a Digital Age Networking strategy that provides a framework to help enterprises enter the digital transformation era. It is based on the following 4 key pillars:

• Connectivity

• IoT

• Augmented intelligence

• Cloud economics

Based on these 4 pillars, organizations can transform their networks from complex and costly infrastructures, into a tool to generate new revenue streams with low operational costs.

Connectivity is key

Today it can take mere minutes to deploy a new application. And while configuring a network still takes time, it is getting better. The ALE Service Defined Network, for example, provides a secure connection automatically from a user, or object, to an authorized application. And, the Intelligent Fabric (iFab) technology automates the deployment of the network and simplifies moves, adds, and changes, reducing the time and effort it takes to maintain and operate a network. That means IT managers can shift their focus from building and running infrastructure toward more profitable business activities.

A single Network Management System (NMS) can also help reduce the IT manager’s workload as they no longer have to handle two management systems with two sets of policies and configuration rules for the wired and wireless networks.

Securing IoT

IoT devices and sensors are changing our lives, the world we live in, and the way we do business. And, if it hasn’t hit your organization yet, then brace yourself because it’s on its way. While billions of connected devices have already been deployed, experts predict that the surge in IoT will not slow down any time soon.

In addition to the sheer numbers of devices, one of the most significant risk factors that connected devices pose is their access to other network segments. Once an object is compromised the whole enterprise network becomes vulnerable. Multiply that risk by potentially millions of objects, and well, you get the picture.

Configuring and managing so many individual devices is unrealistic, IoT containment, however, provides an automated solution to securely onboard IoT devices and protect the network at the same time. Essentially, each object is discovered and classified, segmented, and then monitored. Monitoring the objects is vital so that immediate action can be taken if there is unusual activity on the network.

Get smarter with augmented intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning, can provide correlation among events on the network, as well as with user and device behavior. Piecing together these elements offers IT manager a better understanding of facts, helps address potential problems, and enables digital business processes. These proactive analytics provide information about the QoE of its users and can quickly identify if there is a problem. For example, if a device takes too long to connect to the WLAN, the network can identify the issue and take steps to solve the problem. The network will then send a notification to the administrator to indicate if the problem can be automatically fixed.

When unusual activity is detected with a connected object, the object is automatically disconnected or quarantined. This automated function ensures the quickest possible response.

Cloud economic models create new revenue opportunities

In today’s budget constrained environment cloud business models are presenting new opportunities to revisit the traditional CAPEX financial investment associated with network infrastructure purchases.

Network on Demand (NoD) offers an alternative to technology procurement with an "Infrastructure as a Service" subscription model based on a monthly fixed operational expense (OPEX) fee. Cloud-technology also offers value-added services that can generate new revenue streams to help fund other IT initiatives. For example, in a stadium environment Location-based Services can provide information about the location of users or objects, that means concourse retailers can send promo codes, or food vendors can send discount notification, creating new revenue opportunities to help fund the ongoing digital transformation.

Check out our webpage to learn more about how ALE Digital Age Networking is helping enterprises enter the digital transformation era and grow their business.