Extra tags: Digital Transformation
As businesses embark on a digital transformation journey, they also need to transform their network infrastructure as it forms the very foundation that will facilitate success in today’s cloud era. This is because the traditional approach of relying on hardware-centric networks, especially when organisations embrace a more modern, interconnected and agile way of doing things, is simply not good enough and will slow them down.
Why is that?
First and foremost, traditional enterprise networks were designed with the goal of interconnecting physical devices such as computers, servers, routers, and switches, with security added at the end. Changes to the network are made manually, leaving a large margin for error and an increased possibility of costly outages.
In addition, the physical data centres of the past were designed to be static, with a one-way flow of information. This is completely unsuitable for virtualised and containerised applications in the post-digital transformation world, where information flow is ubiquitous, and infrastructure must be scalable and agile.
Because traditional IT infrastructure was not designed to support the type of pervasive connectivity required in a post-digital transformation world, a software-first approach to network architecture is critical for digital transformation and differentiation in a changing world.
New technologies now enable the abstraction of network hardware, allowing software to run it much more efficiently than ever before. Automation and programmability can tremendously reduce a company's operational complexity by replacing time-consuming manual tasks, allowing for greater scale and reliability.
Today, with the advancement of software-defined networking, businesses that want to modernise their network with software open up a new set of possibilities to drive business innovation – this is what a virtual cloud network can do for your business.
Going on a software-first networking journey can provide your business with numerous benefits, including:
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Improved connectivity and performance by providing a software layer that connects everything, regardless of infrastructure type. According to IDC, businesses were able to respond to network problems in a more timely manner (39% faster on average), reducing the likelihood of experiencing major business-impacting events.
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Increased agility/app deployment/intelligence by optimising app and data deployment across the entire business in real-time.
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Reduced IT infrastructure, team costs and time by unifying disparate systems across physical, cloud, and edge systems for automatic and continuous availability and resources.
With its long history of delivering solutions that span any device, application, or infrastructure, VMware’s Virtual Cloud Network was created to help businesses take advantage of these benefits and build a modern network that can support current and future business initiatives. How does Vmware Virtual Cloud Network achieve this? In a nutshell:
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Enterprises can get the public cloud experience right in the data centre. Built on Vmware NSX, a complete L2-L7 networking and security virtualisation platform, organisations can connect and protect their applications across the on-prem, multi-cloud, bare metal, and container infrastructure, ensuring consistent, pervasive connectivity for apps and data across different environments.
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Security is intrinsic. Vmware’s Virtual Cloud Network portfolio includes a comprehensive set of enterprise-class networking and security solutions ranging from NSX Data Centre to Vmware SD-WAN. On top of that, the Vmware Service-defined Firewall which is built into the hypervisor secures east-west network traffic by leveraging deep visibility into workload behaviour to simplify operations, mitigate risk, ensure compliance, and lower costs.
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Businesses can manage the rapid shift to remote work more effectively, deliver traditional and modern applications faster and more securely, and reduce the cost and complexity of connecting and protecting the distributed enterprise thanks to advancements across the Vmware networking and security portfolio.
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End-to-end analytics. The Virtual Cloud Network includes Vmware NSX Intelligence, a distributed analytics engine, together with vRealize Network Insight to help you build an optimised and secure network infrastructure across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
To learn more about VMware Virtual Cloud Network and how it can enable your business to stay connected and meet modern network demands for performance, scale, flexibility and agility, click here.
