Ethernet Adventures: Turning Enterprise Networking Pipedreams into Reality
Our hero, responsible for running his enterprise network, is hopelessly stuck in an enormous tangle of network complexity. He needs the best connectivity for collaboration, applications and cloud access. But he knows that the networking technology he has today won’t cope with the demands of tomorrow. The business depends on online transactions, connections to multiple data centers and real-time data. Failover, backup, load balancing and stringent security are essential.
Our hero also needs to keep up with the pace set by competitors and start-ups – those not saddled with the burden of dragging legacy networks along with them. Other players have more freedom to swiftly adjust and focus on new ways to improve customer experiences and increase satisfaction. In the race to woo and keep customers happy, our hero fully recognizes that his organization lags behind.
He is tangled in a mess of business broadband, IP-VPN and MPLS routing. His most fervent desire is to break free from the chains of legacy platforms and cut ties from complex, proprietary processes of traditional wide area network (WAN) set-up.
He knows that by not investing in key technology advances his business will suffer. Research by Ciena shows that one-fifth of UK businesses could be missing out on the operational and cost benefits of new network technologies by using equipment and services that are more than three years old.
Our hero needs to consolidate networks and systems. He knows that both the enterprise workforce and the network is changing. He needs the agility, security and efficiency required for the cloud, mobile workforce and the Internet of Things (IoT), while supporting rapidly growing data volumes, new data types and many more data sources.
He is confined by the clutter of business broadband, IP-VPN and MPLS routing. His mission is to clear up the disorder of legacy platforms.
As he struggles, he realizes that his enterprise needs a network powerful enough to combine operational, transactional and wireless traffic, while connecting multiple sites. He must find a network scalable, reliable and robust enough – with direct connectivity to cloud services to deliver the same dynamic, on-demand experience for users no matter where they are, or where their applications are stored. Trouble is, how can he turn this pipedream into reality?
That’s when he notices an old friend. Ethernet.
But it looks different. This truly ubiquitous networking technology has changed a lot since he last saw it. He takes a closer look.
Research by Ciena shows that one-fifth of UK businesses could be missing out on the operational and cost benefits of new network technologies by using equipment and services that are more than three years old.
Ethernet’s ability to expand and blend WAN connectivity has evolved over the last decade, allowing unprecedented flexibility, scale, reliability and security. Business Ethernet only needs simple switching rather than the complex routing required by MPLS and IP-VPN, making the network easier to plan, deploy and manage. Business Ethernet also compliments MPLS and IP-VPN networking technologies, and switched or dedicated Ethernet options can transform his Local Area Network (LAN) into a Wide Area Network, connecting branch offices, business sites, headquarters and data centers. And he can choose his configuration, be it point-to-point, hub and spoke, or any-to-any connectivity.
With business Ethernet, our hero can plan for every eventuality. He can complement the existing network set-up and connect his branch offices. He can also handle massive volumes of traffic concurrently and facilitate huge data loads connecting to and from data centers with high speed (up to 100G) high-performance connectivity. Crucially, with business Ethernet he can easily upgrade and efficiently keep pace with ever-changing application and service demands.
Check out what happens next when our hero looks deeper into the performance, operations, and future-proof capabilities that he needs for his network …
To find out more about Ciena’s Business Ethernet options for best-in-class service delivery and aggregation please visit //www.ciena.com/products/packet-networking/
