#1: Networks evolve to become a source of direct business value
Networks will go beyond pure connectivity to become a direct business value. Wireless is moving from a communications technology to become a broader digital innovation platform.
The migration to the cloud is driving this. That said, we need to change how we look at the cloud. There are multiple clouds - not one. To get the best of out of ‘the cloud’, companies must orchestrate workloads across all types of clouds and SaaS providers.
The reality is that applications, data and workloads are hosted in multiple clouds with workloads in particular getting increasingly fragmented. Thus, it is more critical than ever to understand the path that your data takes as it goes from A to B, then to C and D. Our whole approach to networking must be redesigned to accommodate this multi-cloud reality. Collaboration is key. My best advice to companies is to really think through the network element. Include the Network team from the get-go in the design stage of all of your applications and digital processes.
#2: The increasing importance of sustainability and use of Artificial Intelligence
Sustainability is quickly becoming a major priority for CIOs seeking to unload power-hungry computer processing applications to the cloud and roll out tech aimed at energy optimisation and waste reduction. Sustainability is emerging as a top priority in the 2023 plans of Chief Information Officers. Many CIOs are increasingly charged with leading efforts to unload power-hungry computer-processing applications to the cloud and roll out tech aimed at energy optimisation and waste reduction. AI will have significant impact on sustainability. By implementing AI into data centres, energy use can be reduced and have a significant impact on carbon emissions. BT recently announced a suite of new digital tools to help multinational customers measure and optimise the carbon impact of running applications and cloud workloads across their network. A Carbon Network Dashboard gives a real-time view of power consumption, and a Digital Carbon Calculator helps customers estimate their network’s carbon footprint. These efforts mark BT’s latest step to deliver upon our pledge to help customers avoid 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. According to Gartner, Scope 3 emissions - those generated across an organisation from its supply chain through to product or service delivery - are the most challenging to measure yet can account for over 95 per cent of the total.
#3: Cybersecurity and the Network: The rise of Zero Trust Architecture
The big trend here is the growing use of zero trust architecture for network security. Zero trust strategies have become necessary to provide secure paths for data, apps, and dispersed workloads. 2022 has was a record-breaker for the sheer volume of phishing scams, cyberattacks, data breaches and crypto heists. The coming years will see an increased focus on data privacy and cloud security initiatives, with organizations seeking out more robust zero trust architectures for network security that are better equipped to protect against external threats as well as internal misuse. Additionally, data privacy legislation demands that businesses closely monitor internal misuse, while continuing their fight against external threats so individuals feel safe online.
At the same time, remote working, changes in operating patterns and better connectivity increases the number of devices accessing resources. This significantly expands an organisations attack surface while being invisible to many security products. Additionally, there is expected growth in in IoT investments + AI/ML advancements aimed at threat detection and automation tools designed for incident response purposes. So, it is entirely logical that zero trust strategies become more of a necessity for providing secure paths for data, apps, and dispersed workloads. Here are 4 key measures to consider while implementing a zero-trust architecture:
- Assuming enterprise-owned environment is no different or more trustworthy than non-enterprise-owned environment
- Assuming breach and continuously enacting risk mitigation protections
- Minimizing user and asset access to resources
- Continually authenticating and authorizing identity and security for each access request
