High-performance enterprises need strong, healthy networks that are both structured and managed to deliver exceptional end-user experiences and better business outcomes.
Here are some aspects of structure and management to consider when evaluating your network health.
Measuring Experiences, End to End
A deep understanding of what you have requires more than just looking at network-level metrics. Can you monitor at the application level? Do you understand the points of friction that diminish experiences for internal and external users?
Network Visibility
How much head-scratching happens before an issue gets resolved? Do you know your single points of failure? How responsive is your team in an emergency? Could you have predicted and resolved an outage or slow-down before it happened?
Security from the Edge to Core to Cloud
Are you routing all traffic through a data center, because that’s where your firewall is? Is your distributed workforce – regardless of location and device – protected?
Sophisticated Transport
Are you only using MPLS, or is edge a part of your data delivery model? Do your clouds of choice have multiple channels to talk to each other? How streamlined is your transit? Are you stretched across a patchwork of network providers?
Building for the Future
Growth and capacity are tightly interconnected. Are you playing catch-up as bandwidth demands increase? How do your vendors support just-in-time growth to help you scale? Is there a unified strategy for growth or are you using a patchwork approach?
Network Diversity, Self-Repair, and Proactivity
Network status is no longer “online” vs “offline”. A modern network has diverse routes, and uses automation to proactively identify issues, route network traffic, and repair itself. Does yours have the reliability and resiliency your business demands?