How to deal with the impact of digital transformation on the network?

Digital transformation has increased the importance of the network, especially at the edge where customers, employees, cloud applications and IoT devices connect to the enterprise. The traditional static and undifferentiated network edge of the past is no longer adequate for many reasons, so as enterprises embark on digital transformation initiatives, their networks must be continuously optimized.

Network professionals should look to improve security and adopt software-defined networking (SDN), which enables rapid propagation of changes across the network, to adapt to the many challenges posed by digital transformation.

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Obstacles to digital transformation

Applications have been redesigned and are being migrated to public and private clouds, and applications now rely on services across clouds. These cloud services are tied together by networks, which must always be available because any network outage means that the application will not function as expected.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged from the shadows of operational technology and has become a core component of most enterprise digital transformation strategies. As IoT adoption increases, so too will the number of connected endpoints.

Almost all of these devices are connected at the edge of the network, so problems at the edge can severely harm IoT applications. Historically, network value has been considered highest in the data center and lowest at the edge because the data center is where the applications and data reside. IoT will change and evenly distribute network value.

Advances in wireless technology are also having an impact. With Wi-Fi 6 providing access speeds comparable to wired connections, Wi-Fi is moving from a convenience to an essential method of connecting to the network. Additionally, many mobile and IoT devices are wireless only - they have no wired interface. The combination of these trends has made Wi-Fi the primary access method, with the advantage that all of these devices can connect to a company's network.

Mobile devices, IoT terminals, and cloud computing have created many new entry points and moved them to the edge of the network, which has brought new security issues. Traditional networks have only one entry/exit point, which means putting a large firewall in it and scanning all traffic coming and going. Now, network security must be moved to the network to maximize its effectiveness.

Here’s what to do.

automation

Manual processes have been the norm for as long as there have been networks, but they will be the death knell of companies if not replaced by faster, forward-thinking automation. First, automation removes time-consuming burdens, allowing network engineers to focus on more strategic initiatives. Additionally, automating repetitive tasks involved in running a network is the first step toward an intent-based network, where the network automatically responds to administrators’ requests.

Many things can be automated, but the first step should be to automate the most time-consuming tasks, including firmware updates, operating system upgrades, applying patches, and implementing policy changes.

Embrace SDN for agility

Today's networks need to be highly agile so changes can propagate across the network in real time, allowing it to keep pace with business needs. Network agility comes from centralized control, which allows configuration changes to be made once and propagated across the network immediately. Ideally, network changes can be coordinated with application changes, so performance degradation does not slow down business.

If the network is more than five years old, achieving higher levels of agility may require an infrastructure refresh, which means adopting SDN. Traditional infrastructure has integrated control and data planes, so changes must be made piecemeal. This is why networks take so long to provision and lack agility.

With the SDN model, the control plane is separated from the data plane and controlled centrally, so network engineers define a change and it is immediately pushed throughout the network.

Older equipment wasn't designed to be software-first, so look for infrastructure that's built on a modern operating system like Linux and can be programmed with current languages ​​like Python and Ruby.

Understand the APIs on network devices

As the network moves to software, it needs to have software features. One of these is an exposed API that allows the network to interface directly with applications, allowing for greater levels of automation to be created. For example, a video conferencing application could signal the network to reserve bandwidth when a call is in progress, then remove the reservation when the call ends.

Network engineers should look for infrastructure with rich APIs and, importantly, learn the necessary skills to leverage them. Most network engineers have never made an API call and rely on locally written scripts. In order to take advantage of the simplicity and speed of APIs, it is critical to learn modern software skills.

Intrinsically safe

Intrinsic security is not implemented as an overlay, but rather is tightly coupled to the network. With this type of security, the network itself acts as a security platform that includes a broad ecosystem of best-of-breed tools that provide integrated and automated compliance checks, threat detection, and mitigation. Intrinsic security protects the network from the time a new device is launched until its session is terminated.

While the network will never replace next-generation firewalls, the network can provide a great deal of security. Because the network infrastructure sees all traffic, it can collect enough data to determine when traffic deviates from the norm, which could indicate a breach has occurred.

For example, if an IoT device communicates with the same cloud service every day and then one day attempts to connect to a billing server, it could indicate a malicious intrusion. An inherently secure network can isolate the device and direct security tools to further diagnose the problem.

Update Success

Success in the digital world requires investment in many new technologies, all of which are highly dependent on the network. Current networks were never designed for demanding digital businesses, and they need to be updated, but also operated and managed differently. Businesses willing to invest in their networks and retrain their engineers will maximize their success through digital transformation. Those who are unwilling to do so will suffer as application performance and user experience suffer, and the likelihood of a breach will increase exponentially.