So far in this story, our hero has found his way out of the tangle of network complexity, selecting the best possible connectivity for his business. He investigated the public internet / broadband, IP-VPN, dedicated Ethernet or a mixed approach; and found the solution with an old friend, business Ethernet.

Now he can replace outdated processes and technologies to help him streamline enterprise network operations, improve access to cloud services and deliver new applications and services, quickly and efficiently.

How much more quickly? Building and delivering new services that once took months to complete are now accomplished in minutes.

With lower latency and higher bandwidth than other alternative solutions, the network can readily handle applications for which microseconds count, such as algorithmic trading, data center backups and live video broadcasts.

In his ongoing effort to shed complexity and simplify operations, our hero has embraced a network that grows with the business. Ethernet connectivity enables the bandwidth, resiliency and flexibility his organization desperately needs. Now, bandwidth-intensive applications including video, network attached devices and cloud services are easy to manage, and bandwidth can be scaled to allow for increasing demands as applications need it.

The business Ethernet network also performs well for real-time applications, no longer stressing network’s capabilities. With lower latency and higher bandwidth than other alternative solutions, the network can readily handle applications for which microseconds count, such as algorithmic trading, data center backups and live video broadcasts.

Along the way, our hero has gained the performance and reliability needed from his Ethernet network to support a range of fault tolerance levels that fit his business’ most demanding cloud networking and application availability requirements.

Our hero is also able to sidestep the public internet, keeping control of the network and securing traffic in a way that keeps industry regulations in mind. That’s because his dedicated Ethernet network is separate from the internet, offering better security protection and visibility into network operations. Because of its deterministic qualities, the routes his organization’s data traffic now takes are readily understood and fully protected in the event that faults crop up between the traffic’s source and destination.

Looking ahead, our hero can now clearly see how his business Ethernet network will play a prominent role in the future of his organization, even as unified communications and video traffic increases. He smiles knowing that the connectivity he now relies on is keeping the network’s total cost of ownership (TCO) down. And, he is now running strong alongside competitors, confident that his agile Ethernet network can meet performance demands. 

Someday soon, our hero’s journey will lead to an autonomous network infrastructure. In the meantime, he can ensure greater efficiency so his company can readily seek out new market opportunities, and keep its customers happy.

Across many enterprises today executives, much like our hero, are working to embrace modern, on-demand data and applications by investing in resilient networks that can keep pace with changing business needs. They want high-performance networks that are resilient, robust and well-managed to give users maximised availability. Being able to service the ever-increasing demand for data requires greater flexibility across the network – so that end-users can benefit from that tight integration between premises, data centres and cloud infrastructures. This is why Business Ethernet services are increasingly employed across banking, healthcare, education, government and military operations – any environment that requires high-capacity, high-performance application support.

Our hero’s journey isn’t meant to be definitive, nor will it provide all answers for everyone. This tale is intended to provide an example of one enterprise’s journey to high-capacity Ethernet networking and the potential benefits and opportunities that can be gained. To learn about your journey and how Ciena’s business Ethernet options can give you best-in-class service delivery and aggregation, please visit //www.ciena.com/products/packet-networking/