09/12/2024 | Press release | Archived content
By Mark Austen, Solutions Architect
Understanding and aligning to the needs of your network team can unlock a more profitable, efficient, and sustainable business.
Network and IT teams are part of the success of your organization. They keep your critical applications running smoothly and protect your data from threats, all while flying under the radar.
Your enterprise network has a significant influence on productivity, speed to market, customer satisfaction, and OpEx - and your network team has valuable insights into exactly how your network can contribute to your success (or failure). But these valuable insights often don't reach the executive level, where strategic decisions are made.
Aligning network operations and strategic decisions can be a game-changer for productivity, customer satisfaction, and long-term growth. From our own team of Megaport networking experts, here's a list of things we think executives should know about their network.
Cybersecurity isn't just a hot topic among networking architects - we know it's on every executive team's list of concerns, too. But network security isn't something you can just set and forget.
Threats evolve constantly, and your enterprise network needs to evolve with them. These are just some of the things we do regularly to keep the organization secure:
To boost the impact of these activities, you can foster a cybersecurity culture across the business by:
It's easy to assume that in our world, more bandwidth equals better performance. But that's like thinking a six-lane highway will automatically improve traffic without addressing clogged on-ramps or potholes in the road.
In reality, network performance also depends on factors like:
This is why it's not always as simple as adding more bandwidth if we experience performance issues. Instead, we'll address these factors by using private, scalable solutions, like Network as a Service (NaaS).
The term "cloud" can be misleading. Data is stored on-premises, and when it travels, it passes through on-premises midpoints to reach its destination. This means your business network heavily relies on data centers and other physical infrastructure for "mission-critical" Software as a Service (SaaS) functions like:
It's important for us to invest in hybrid cloud solutions that can interconnect branch, data center, and cloud workloads for better network performance, keeping customers happy and teams productive. Having an interconnected network also makes it easier to incorporate new applications and functionalities across our network stack - particularly important for executive teams looking to incorporate AI and ML in the future.
Speaking of AI - if you're planning one or more AI implementations across your business, it's essential to involve your network team.
AI isn't magic. It runs on computing infrastructure and relies on your network to integrate and function successfully with your existing internal and customer-facing applications.
To successfully integrate AI tools, your network team will look at things like:
An efficient network is critical for successful AI integration, and your network team will even be able to recommend some useful tools of their own.
Discover Megaport AI ExchangeIn the networking world, one of our biggest fears is vendor lock-in: being so tied to one vendor that switching is nearly impossible without significant cost and disruption.
We're in the era of multicloud for good reason. Different cloud providers offer different reach, features, benefits, and costs - this extends to data center operators and managed service providers, too.
Being able to use multiple vendors means:
Architecting your network with multiple providers may seem inefficient at first glance, but it's quite the opposite. In the hands of a capable network team, multi-vendor setups offer the opportunity to improve your company's bottom line and get more value from your network investment.
In 2024, every executive team is talking about business sustainability, and for good reason. It's more than just a feather in the cap - customers, investors, and partners are making revenue-altering decisions based on whether a company demonstrates commitment to environmental responsibility.
What some executive teams may not realize is that placing some investment toward a more sustainable network will have a major impact on your bottom line and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals. Plus, it's also a win for improving efficiency and reducing long-term costs.
Here are just some of the ways your network team can improve business sustainability:
As a result, you'll be able to:
Learn more about achieving a more sustainable network.
If executives and network teams can bridge the gap between technical operations and executive decision-making, they can unlock a more profitable, efficient, and sustainable business.
By staying engaged with your network team and understanding the nuances of effective network management, you can better align the company's overarching goals to tangible, data-driven objectives - and ensure your network infrastructure supports your company's long-term growth.