Advancing to Digital Optimization After Transformation

What is AI in networking?
Within the context of networking, AI generally falls into one of use cases. First, AI can be used to identify opportunities for network optimization by finding patterns in performance data. Second, AI applications are built to make use of networking infrastructure, with certain aspects of the AI model and usage informing how an organization must connect and protect elements of its networking infrastructure. The remainder of this post will focus on the latter use case.

What can we learn from AI in networking?
Optimizing your digital infrastructure to efficiently and effectively serve your business goals can have the benefit of freeing both capital and human resources to focus on innovation. Generative AI is a great example of an emerging technology that benefits from a flexible hybrid or multicloud architecture. IDC predicts that AI implementation will be a key driver of the adoption of multicloud networking solutions, with AI expenditures exceeding $500 billion by 2027. Enterprise organizations are particularly likely to require multicloud networking solutions for their AI implementations, as they are most likely to stand up a combination of public and private AI, with services provided.

Even within a single AI model implementation, multicloud networking matters. The output quality of AI models depends on immaculate data hygiene during ingest and training, and peak performance relies on effective inference workload management at the edge. The integration of AI into an existing application landscape adds complexity and expands the threat surface, making consistent security even more important. While this seems daunting, the right multicloud networking solutions, factoring in connectivity (including container networking solutions), security, and visibility can set you up for success with AI. Organizations that have already implemented robust multicloud networking solutions have an advantage when dealing with potential challenges related to AI in networking. This trend also highlights how ensuring secure, effective connectivity and implementing a consistent security posture helps ensure that organizations are ready to take advantage of the latest tech innovations by creating a flexible architecture that can protect and process data securely and effectively, then deliver outputs wherever needed.