The IT roadmap for organisations is clearer now — a hybrid IT combination of public/private clouds alongside legacy — but it doesn’t make the journey any easier. The tendency of boardrooms to see “anything-as-a-service” as the way forward, presents a lot of challenges for the CIO and heads of IT. With less infrastructure and applications to actively manage, they have to redefine their roles.
We know from a BT survey of Irish CIOs that 62% find it difficult to keep pace with technological change and admit to underestimating the level of change to their role. Who can blame them given the spectre of “shadow IT” also looms? It’s become so easy to sign up for SaaS (software-as-a-service) solutions that many lines of business are doing it on their own accord, outside of the IT department’s control.
The sales team uses Salesforce, for example, HR subscribes to Workday and a product group wants Amazon Web Services for extra compute power for a data analytics project. No wonder CIOs feel like they’re losing control.
Regaining control
So the network becomes a common denominator for controlling the performance of hybrid services — the problem is that most organisations are running infrastructure ill-equipped for the digital age. Hybrid services need hybrid networks. The way the market is heading, according to Gartner, is towards standardised hybrid WAN offerings that combine MPLS, internet VPNs and local internet breakout with added security.
This is what BT calls an Intelligent Hybrid Network — infrastructure that puts CIOs and the network management team firmly in control again. And by providing a single window on all network activity disparate IT services can be managed much more effectively, both in terms of cost and performance.
Question of balance
Different traffic requires a different type of network service, from highly available, fully managed internet access to low-cost, best-effort connections for remote sites. MPLS remains essential for business critical traffic. Having the flexibility to take new services quickly on board is key as cloud services continue to evolve.
The ability to balance performance, security, scale and cost savings across hybrid networks is going to give CIOs and their organisations a real edge. Decisions can be made about when it makes sense to move to software-defined networks for even greater control, or if the best way to evolve legacy networks and sweat assets a little longer. With an intelligent hybrid network, properly managed, everything is on the table.
This is the new world that the modern digital CIO is operating in. Orchestrating disparate services is now part of the CIO’s job, optimising the cloud opportunity to deliver on value and performance, real benefits that will go down well with their boardroom colleagues.
To find out more sign up to the free BT webinar on Wednesday 23 November — Build your network to thrive in the digital age — where Current Analysis will join us to discuss market trends.
Steve Coakley is the proposition manager for BT Ireland’s network portfolio
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