Wired options, especially in rural areas, tend to be inflexible and regionalized, resulting in limited choice and lengthy installation. Inconsistent service and support further exacerbate the problem, especially for distributed enterprises with multiple locations that may have different ISPs, rates and service levels. These challenges can slow down business operations, impacting real-time data sharing, information security and service delivery … and at the same time, cost more.

Businesses require secure connectivity that is fast enough to meet their business needs, and it must also be reliable and consistent. They expect coverage when and where they need it—for backup, business continuity and everyday operations. Businesses might need to support remote employees, activate pop-up work sites or satellite offices, or simply run their point-of-sale devices. They shouldn’t have to worry about whether their internet service will work properly. When connectivity is a given, business owners can focus on what truly matters, like customer experience, competitiveness, innovation, employee support and company growth.

Simplicity is key.

For some businesses, consolidating network services to a single partner can streamline operations and budgeting, while reliable connectivity will ensure confidence in running key applications. Enterprise use cases can be complex, and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has emerged as a flexible solution that provides a fast, reliable, straight-forward approach for connecting retails stores, remote offices, and remote work. Not only can it be deployed quickly (typically within days), but it can offer a completely diverse path from wireline options.

What is fixed wireless? It’s a reliable and simple-to-set-up internet solution for residential and commercial customers using radio waves, not trenches lined with fiber connections the cable companies have used for decades. T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network can bring internet service to communities across the country without the limitation of the length of the cord buried underground.

Fixed wireless connectivity is becoming more available – Deloitte projects growth of nearly 91% in global fixed wireless access connections, from about 88 million in 2022 to 168 million in 2026. That’s great news for underserved communities with little choice in internet service providers.

The growing adoption of cloud IT and the rise of hybrid work are driving businesses to seek alternative solutions. Analysts predict that by 2024, FWA will capture 80-90% of new subscribers nationwide, disrupting the internet market. While urban and suburban areas lead FWA adoption, there has been a surprising surge in rural areas due to the ease of implementation and significant advancements in 5G network speed, reliability and coverage.

Tractor Supply Company, the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the U.S., is deploying T-Mobile Business Internet in more than 2,200 stores in 49 states, many in rural areas with little or no internet coverage. It’s helping them innovate ways to build brand loyalty and deliver legendary customer experiences without the worry of reliable connectivity.

First, 35k employees have their own connected device enabled with “Hey GURA,” which stands for (Greet, Uncover, Recommend, Ask). The device uses generative AI to serve as a virtual product assistant and helps team members collaborate in real time to provide tailored customer recommendations. And “Tractor Vision,” (stacked with AI) can proactively identify customers that may need assistance onsite like propane on the side lot, riding mowers, in-store pickup, or Utility Task Vehicles. It also monitors register wait times and signals team members for backup.

While a great use case, the reality is that many enterprises won’t consolidate and use FWA for their primary connectivity. However, it can also be configured as a secure option for affordable rural coverage, high-quality backup and augmented connectivity for outdoor areas. One example is the United States Postal Service, which enabled T-Mobile’s FWA as a backup solution for their 12,000+ connections alongside their primary wireline connectivity.

While the reliability of FWA may not reach the same level as wireline connections due to the inherent nature of radio frequency communications, it is important to note that wireless devices may not always perform optimally in all environments, like inside basements or metal buildings. But with adequate coverage, careful design, and professional installation, FWA can rival wireline with its flexibility and speed of deployment.

Business network infrastructure is becoming increasingly complex for small to medium businesses. From the business with a single location to a larger business connecting multiple locations, IT teams face the daunting task of putting together all the pieces for a complete connectivity stack that connects everything from point-of-sale systems to video surveillance to IoT applications. They must assemble regional internet service providers, mismatched hardware and management software from various suppliers just to create a functional network infrastructure. And to make things even more complicated, all these moving parts have their own contracts, varied rate plans and support models. This complexity doesn’t just cause headaches, it can limit scalability – and possibly compromise security.

The global average cost of a single data breach reached an estimated $4.45 million in 2023 ― 15% more than in 2020 — and organizations are increasingly turning to software-based solutions like SASE to help protect themselves from attacks. But software-based security solutions can pose some risks and can leave room for improvement compared to hardware-based security solutions. For example, traditional, software-based, SASE only offers protection when client software is downloaded onto devices and configured. This is a heavy administrative lift for IT departments and can potentially leave some devices vulnerable, such as IoT hardware and routers.

T-Mobile created T-SIMsecure — the first SIM-based SASE solution that uses International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) for clientless authentication. This hardware-based component means that devices connected to T-Mobile’s network are automatically authorized through the SIM card, simplifying the work for IT and security teams. It also delivers improved experiences for employees who are on-the-go, like field services and frontline workers. Because the authorization is always on and pervasive, it helps protect devices that are unable to support traditional SASE software, such as IoT and routers. And devices that don’t have a T-Mobile SIM can still download and set up the SASE device client regardless of carrier or Wi-Fi network.

Secure, reliable internet connectivity is the foundation for business growth and customer engagement. From there, a fully connected workplace can streamline configuration and monitor additional devices like access points for enhanced Wi-Fi coverage, switches for expanded device connectivity, and security cameras for onsite surveillance. T-Mobile’s Connected Workplace is a fully managed solution that packages nationwide 5G business internet with Cisco Meraki devices and a cloud-managed networking platform with simple pricing. This kind of automation can alleviate the IT teams’ work related to “keeping the lights on,” with things like installation, software licensing, configuration management, and device upgrades – giving them freedom to innovate.

Learn more about connectivity options through T-Mobile for Business.

The post Simplifying Business Connectivity: The Power of Fixed Wireless Access appeared first on eWEEK.

To learn more about that, I recently spoke with Chip Suttles, VP of Technology for the Seattle Seahawks. We met at the team’s home turf, Lumen Field, known as CenturyLink Field before the rebranding by Lumen Technologies.

Suttles, entering his 12th season in this position, is responsible for overseeing both the traditional IT aspects and the technical operations of the stadium. We discussed Lumen Field’s massive network infrastructure and how it’s delivering the best fan experience possible. Video of the interview and key highlights are below.

Record Levels of Network Connectivity 

Managing large-scale events like NFL games, with thousands of attendees, requires a complex network infrastructure. Telecom company Lumen provides Lumen Field with everything from network/internet services to backend support and hardware provisioning.

The Seattle Seahawks network backbone is designed for high traffic and fast speeds, necessary to support approximately 70,000 on-site attendees and remote viewers.

The scope of the network infrastructure at Lumen Field is substantial, particularly in terms of Lumen Field’s Wi-Fi connectivity. Lumen implemented Wi-Fi 6 at the stadium in 2020, including 1,500 access points, with more than 750 located in the stadium bowl alone. The design combined under-seat and overhead access points to optimize coverage and performance. This approach has proven highly effective, resulting in record levels of data transfers and connectivity on game day.

Taylor Swift and Network Capacity 

The Seattle Seahawks network throughput is substantial but varies depending on the event and specific moments within a game. Lumen Field’s Wi-Fi network typically sees about 26,000 unique connections, with about 22,000 concurrent connections at any given time.

The amount of data traffic the network handles ranges from six to 10 terabytes (TB), depending on the game. Notably, during significant events like touchdowns, there is a spike in traffic, reaching eight to 10 TB.

Traffic volume is further amplified during special events, such as concerts. For instance, hosting a concert like Taylor Swift’s dramatically increases network usage, pushing the data traffic to high levels, sometimes reaching 24 to 26 TB. Such events significantly test the Seattle Seahawks network’s capacity and reliability, demonstrating its ability to handle exceptionally high traffic.

Constant Improvement for Modernization

Lumen Field is continuously improving the fan experience by adopting innovative technologies. For example, the stadium implemented Clear to expedite entry lanes. Also, in partnership with Amazon, food and beverage concessions have been transformed into stores, allowing fans to pay via biometric palm readers or with a credit card without using a traditional checkout counter. The result is a faster and frictionless service, which has increased revenue at concession sites and strengthened the stadium’s partnership with Amazon.

The upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 at Lumen Field will pose unique challenges. Although it’s still early and the specific IT requirements for the event are not fully defined, flexibility will be crucial in accommodating the event’s demands. This means being prepared to adapt operational spaces, typically used for storage or parking, for different purposes like Lumen Field security check-ins or ticket validation.

The 22-year-old stadium is undergoing improvements to ensure it remains a state-of-the-art facility. Key to this effort is the commitment to regular maintenance and modernization. Upcoming enhancements include transitioning the stadium’s audio system from analog to digital, which promises to significantly improve sound quality. Additionally, new loudspeakers will be installed to enhance the audio experience for fans. There are also plans to upgrade the bowl and other premium spaces with high-definition screens.

Bottom Line: AI and the Future of Networking

As for generative artificial intelligence, the NFL is cautious in its approach. There has been some experimentation with AI applications such as chatbots for game-day customer service, creating posters using AI-driven artwork, and even using AI for film study analysis in the sports science team. The next steps involve formulating a clear strategy for AI adoption, overseen by a newly formed committee comprising members from legal, data strategy, and other departments.

While AI will play a role in IT networks, even without this emerging technology it’s clear that network infrastructure will continue to face ever greater demands as its usage and bandwidth requirements are continuously challenged. As the experience of Lumen Field demonstrates, the future of enterprise IT will most certainly be network-centric for the foreseeable future.

For more information about generative AI providers, read our in-depth guide: Generative AI Companies: Top 12 Leaders

The post Seattle Seahawks Network Innovation: Redefining Stadium Connectivity appeared first on eWEEK.

Since the news was announced, I’ve had time to digest the implications. Below are my top five thoughts.

Kickstarting Juniper’s Growth

The acquisition was complimentary and consolidated. Much of the media focus was on the perceived high amounts of product overlap between the two companies. This is understandable, as Wi-Fi is at the heart of both companies’ network strategies. HPE Networking was built on the back of Aruba Networks, which started as a Wi-Fi company.

Similarly, it was Mist Wi-Fi that kick-started Juniper Networks’ enterprise growth. On a post-acquisition analyst call, HPE CEO Antonio Neri and Juniper CEO Rami Rahim did an excellent job showing the complementary nature of the deal.

While both companies do have Wi-Fi, campus and data center switching, and SD-WAN, HPE has the following products Juniper does not: Private 5G, Security Services Edge (SSE), and 5G RAN. Conversely, Juniper brings Enterprise and Telco routers, next-generation firewalls, and Tier 1 switches and routers.

Cybersecurity in Transition

Security is a significant component of the acquisition. When industry watchers pontificated on the news, strong attention was paid to all things networking with security rarely mentioned. This made me curious as to whether HPE planned to spin out the security, sell it off or some other action.

In the analyst Q&A, I asked Neri and Rahim about it, and they walked through the thinking. Rahim stated, “The opportunity to leverage security to make our portfolio more comprehensive and competitive is absolutely part of the thesis here.”

He then talked about the transition that security is going through and added, “Security is moving from on-premises, which Juniper has a broad portfolio in, to the cloud, which Axis Security (recent acquisition), brings to HPE. Although not the highlight of the acquisition, security will play a key role in its success.”

The HPE Full Stack

The combined company makes HPE stronger but moves the needle only slightly in the battle against Cisco.

One of the challenges all network vendors have in their battle against Cisco is the relative sizes of the networking businesses are tiny compared to Cisco. According to Gartner, at the end of 2022, Cisco Enterprise Networking was $24.1B in revenue, HPE was $3.7B, and Juniper $2.1. The combined HPE – Juniper is now $5.8, still miles behind Cisco. HPE had been the number share vendor in North America, and now they are a strong number two, but there is still a way to go to catch the leader.

One advantage HPE has over the field is its ability to bring a “full stack” solution to market, which includes ASICs (both companies have excellent ASICs), network infrastructure, computing hardware, software, AI, and services. For customers that want a one-stop shop, HPE has a marked advantage now over its biggest computing and services competitor, Dell, which has struggled with regard to networking.

For a full portrait of the AI vendors serving a wide array of business needs, read our in-depth guide: 150+ Top AI Companies 2024

The Network Drives Everything

HPE is now a network-first company. One of the interesting aspects of the acquisition is that when the companies are combined, networking will be 31% of revenue, making it HPE’s largest division. It will also account for a whopping 56% of operating profit, which shows how much higher margin networking is than computing. This dramatically changes HPE’s go-to market as they can now lead with networking, which is critical today as businesses have become network-centric.

All modern technology, from the cloud to mobility to IoT to AI, is dependent on the network for success. Mist AI is of particular interest. When Juniper Networks acquired Mist, it was primarily a Wi-Fi troubleshooting tool. It has since expanded to encompass the WAN, campus, and data center. If HPE can expand the use of Mist to span its entire portfolio, it could offer customers a single AI offer that spans all infrastructure and would be unique in the industry.

Likely Some Consolidation on the Way

Customers need not be concerned. When the acquisition was announced, several HPE customers contacted me with concerns about the fate of the HPE Aruba products. This is sensible as there is overlap in the product lines, so one could assume HPE will keep Juniper and end-of-life all competitive products.

Post-acquisition news, I talked with Phil Mottram, EVP and GM of HPE Networking, and asked him when we might expect some product rationalization. Mottram told me that any kind of move like that would be “commercial suicide,” and the company plans to keep both product lines around for the foreseeable future as that’s what’s best for the customer.

He also explained there was very little networking overlap between HPE Networking and Juniper, so HPE customers can continue to use what they have, as can Juniper customers. He did admit, long term, there will likely be some consolidation, but HPE has always been good about customer communications and provides at least five years notice when products are to be designated end of life.

Bottom Line: HPE and Juniper Networks

Like all business transactions, this one will all come down to execution. The best plans can be derailed by poor execution and HPE has a mixed track record. The ProCurve acquisition went well but 3Com was a mess. Aruba was fantastic but Autonomy was not.

How will Juniper fare? Only time will tell but the person that will lead the combined entity, Juniper CEO Rami Rahim, is an excellent visionary and execution machine. There are many issues to work out including channel overlap, sales, go to market, and product development but I believe Rahim gives HPE the best chance of success. Time will tell.

The post Juniper Networks Acquisition by HPE: 5 Key Insights appeared first on eWEEK.

Partner Simplification a Key Initiative for Cisco

Cisco has simplified and combined current incentives into a single Cisco Partner Incentive. Implemented in a phased approach, the new incentive is expected to roll out in the second half of 2024. It will align with Cisco’s shift toward software and services, providing partners with rebates that encourage and reward business growth, according to Jason W. Gallo, Vice President of Global Partner GTM Acceleration at Cisco.

Cisco relies heavily on its partner community to drive its business. During his keynote, Cisco EVP and Chief Customer and Partner Officer Jeff Sharritts mentioned that 92% of the company’s business currently flows through partners.

While partners are generally positive about Cisco, some partners have stated that the incentive programs can often be confusing due to the multiple facets of the program. Cisco has been committed to streamlining incentives, making it easier for partners to understand how they are compensated, and this week’s announcements are part of the simplification of the partner experience.

Also see: Top Digital Transformation Companie

One Incentive Plan to Rule Them All

The Partner Incentive will feature three main components:

• Rebates for one-time sales deals.
• Incentives for recurring business.
• Bonuses for delivering customer value, such as driving solution adoption and increasing subscription volumes.

Partners will receive rebates linked to the total value of their sales contracts, activities related to customer engagement, and any growth in yearly subscription revenue. They can also earn extra rewards for investing in their partnership with Cisco and selling its solutions.

PXP Portal Gets a Dose of AI

Furthermore, Cisco is expanding the Partner Experience Platform (PXP), a customized portal for partners. The PXP now includes artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities that offer insights to help partners identify growth opportunities.

Cisco updated the platform with a new dashboard that gives partners a complete overview of their financial engagements and investments. A new Growth Finder module provides insights into a company’s customer base and shows opportunities for refreshes, renewals, and new prospects.

Partners Access to Sustainability Tools

Alongside these enhancements, Cisco is introducing a Sustainability Estimator tool, set to launch later this month. The tool will help partners evaluate potential energy savings, emission reductions, cost savings, and the overall environmental benefits that can be achieved by updating their IT infrastructure.

The tool will include a Sustainability Partner Journey, which is a collection of resources designed to assist partners in developing their sustainability initiatives.

“The Sustainability Estimator that we’re making available to our partners has inputs from the International Energy Agency (IEA), so it allows you to precisely pinpoint energy changes and carbon footprint impact as a part of the tool. We use the standards that convert energy consumption changes into carbon footprint,” said Gallo, during a briefing with analysts.

Managed Services: Simplifying Customer Deployments

Managed services providers (MSPs) are also getting a boost from Cisco with the launch of Partner Advanced Support.

This new offering gives MSPs additional options and better support to avoid service disruptions and resolve issues more quickly through expedited access to Cisco’s Technical Assistance Center (TAC). TAC provides 24/7 global access to experts offering assistance and troubleshooting for Cisco products.

Furthermore, Cisco is launching Managed Extended Detection and Response (XDR) and Managed Firewall services, broadening the security solutions available to MSPs. Such services offer organizations an integrated approach to cybersecurity, where monitoring and defense are consolidated across networks, endpoints, and the cloud.

Around-the-clock surveillance eliminates blind spots that isolated security solutions might miss. This is especially valuable for companies that need more resources to house a specialized security team.

“For those looking to expand their perimeter security, these offers will have multi-tenancy and multi-instance scalability. The enriched capabilities will complement our security portfolio with guided service creation, attractive pricing, and multiple incentives to enhance the partners’ profitability in this space,” said Gallo.

Managed service providers have been a growing part of Cisco’s partner base. Infrastructure continues to grow in complexity and is so challenging that many organizations are choosing to offload operations to MSPs. This can lead to faster deployment times and more consistent operations as the MSP takes on the challenge of managing the complexity, enabling the customer to realize faster time to value.

Cisco is implementing new Solution Specializations to support further partners, including Internet of Things (IoT) and small and medium business (SMB) categories. The SMB Specialization has been refreshed to focus on solutions that include Smart SMB, Hybrid SMB, Secure SMB, and Remote SMB.

Cisco plans to introduce two new IoT Solution Specializations in the first half of 2024, addressing both industrial and non-industrial IoT markets. These changes aim to align partner specializations more closely with Cisco’s overall strategy.

For more information, also see: Digital Transformation Guide

Bottom Line: Supporting the Partner Network

The initiatives announced at the summit underscore Cisco’s focus on fostering a supportive and profitable environment for its partners, with a clear emphasis on growth, differentiation, and sustainability. During all the keynotes, every executive, including CEO Chuck Robbins, reiterated the importance of partners in Cisco’s ability to scale and deliver their solutions to customers faster.

The post At Summit, Cisco Revs Up Its Partner Engine appeared first on eWEEK.

In fact, more than 85% of enterprises ZK Research surveyed said they have separate deployments or plans for all of those technologies. The survey, sponsored by CommScope, included 402 North American enterprises and was fielded and analyzed by ZK Research.

For cellular and Wi-Fi, it’s an “and” world 

There is tremendous industry chatter surrounding private 4G/5G cellular and Wi-Fi. One can find articles claiming cellular services will eventually kill Wi-Fi and others saying the opposite.

The reality is that customers want both, according to our survey.  Wi-Fi is ubiquitous but, in some cases, cellular is the better option because of its broad coverage. Industries that cover a wide geographic area, that value mobility or that can’t put up with latency, will likely opt for cellular.

Many businesses will use Wi-Fi and cellular because, although the technologies seem competitive, they are highly complementary. Wi-Fi is an excellent technology for ad hoc wireless to connect laptops, mobile phones, and other user devices. Cellular 4G/5G is ideal where resilient connectivity is required.

Also see: NTT Addresses the Why and When of Private 5G 

Enterprises are paying the price for “too much to manage”

The multiple technologies themselves are enough to induce stress with even the most seasoned network professionals as they need to worry about management, security, and QoS systems.

Seventy percent of the enterprises we surveyed say they’re running 2+ management systems, 2+ security systems, and 2+ QoS systems for each wired, Wi-Fi, and private 4G/5G network. Thirty-four percent say they use more than three, and 12 percent use 4+.

In addition, enterprises say their network operations staff wastes 17% of their time and 19% of their budget running separate access networks.

There’s simply too much to manage, troubleshoot, and secure—even as the stakes have never been higher. It’s no surprise that enterprises are looking to simplify. They just want to run their businesses. Yet even though this is a pressing need, enterprises haven’t addressed it internally. Neither have the large system vendors.

Also see: Digital Transformation Guide

Bottom Line: Nine in 10 enterprises want a converged multi-access wireless network

The cries for help from within enterprises couldn’t be clearer. Almost 9 in 10 enterprises think that a converged multi-access wireless network would benefit their organization.

Enterprises across public venues, manufacturing, and transportation are nearly unanimous in saying such an approach would be superior to running separate networks.

Read next: Understand the Differences Between 5G, WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E

The post Success with Private 5G and Wi-Fi Requires Unified Management appeared first on eWEEK.

An interesting data point from ZK Research is that 68% of business leaders consider the network important to business transformation. This is because organizations have become more distributed and dynamic, putting the network at the center of digital transformation strategies.

Also see: Top Digital Transformation Companies

WAN Evolution is Necessary for Digital Transformation

The network, particularly the WAN, has not evolved in the better part of thirty years. In fact, the architecture most WANs are designed with is essentially the same as when I was an IT pro over two decades ago. This is what’s driving the high amounts of interest in software-defined WANs (SD-WANs). Despite the momentum, finding good case studies of real-world deployments has been challenging.

At the VMware Explore 2023, VMware hosted a breakout session with two technical implementation team members from Providence, a healthcare organization with 51 hospitals and 829 clinics in a wide variety of states around the country. 

Providence Used SD-WAN to Redesign its Network

The case study senior principal network engineer Charlie Hagen and principal network engineer Conor McCutcheon were at the VMware event to discuss “Redesigning a Mission-Critical WAN to Drive Business.”

McCutcheon described his organization’s journey. “We provide life-saving care,” he said. “Underpinning all of that healthcare delivery is our network. A patient having a stroke or heart attack does not want to wait for the network to work for them to receive that care.”

McCutcheon said that the state of the Providence network was driven by organic growth and expansion over many years. This resulted in a fractured WAN topology with different regional networks that didn’t use a common standard.

In my experience, this is, by far, the norm versus the exception, leaving most companies with a messy, unmanageable WAN environment.

WAN Evolution Required a Rethink of the Network

McCutcheon said that Providence took these actions:

• Consolidated to a single routing design enterprise-wide
• Standardized on a single routing platform
• Mediated overlapping IP space
• Unified disparate routing domains
• Set enterprise-wide standards

The consolidation fixed many issues, but selecting a single national carrier was challenging. With a national carrier, you have to take what they offer. That carrier might subcontract services to the local exchange, leading to finger-pointing when something goes wrong, which increases mean-time-to-recovery and can slow down new services or upgrades.

“Finally, we didn’t always see eye-to-eye with our national carriers on [technological] diversity,” McCutcheon said. “There were numerous occasions where incidents like fiber-seeking backhoes or carrier maintenance took both circuits down at a site even though we ordered diversity for that site.”

Charlie Hagen joined the discussion and said Providence decided to return to the table and reexamine the requirements. They wanted to develop the best WAN in healthcare and embrace change rather than depending on yesterday’s architecture and approaches.

SD-WAN Provides Superior Application Experience 

“We wanted to deliver the best application experience because our caregivers experience our network through the applications that consume it,” Hagen said. “We wanted the WAN to enable the business to be agile in response to new opportunities and demands, including absorbing bandwidth-intensive needs of new medical equipment rather than being the bottleneck.”

Being able to shift the network because of unforeseen events (maybe a global pandemic?) was a critical requirement.

Hagen and McCutcheon decided to select an SD-WAN to enable the following advantages:

• Dynamic remediation of impaired circuits through error correction and real-time detection and failover of impaired circuits.
• Abstraction of the transport from the routing to enable integration of additional circuit types like internet connectivity into an enterprise connectivity model without having a separate solution.
• Simplified management of the entire platform from a single pane of glass.
• Standardization of the configuration and design.

“As Yogi Berra said, ‘When you come to a fork on the road, take it,'” McCutcheon said. “Our proposal was nothing less than a reinvention of our WAN.” So, with stakes so high, McCutcheon said the selection had to be correct. Providence asked a third party to build a test environment.

For more information, also see: Digital Transformation Guid

Selecting the SD-WAN Solution

“Several platform vendors participated and underwent an extensive test plan to ensure that they met our requirements and that we understood their behavior under load and failure conditions,” he said.

McCutcheon then shared some criteria they used to select their next SD-WAN solution, including dynamic path selection, zero-touch provisioning, orchestration and automation, link impairment detection and remediation, and interoperability with the legacy network.

“So as a result of this extensive testing, and because we’re here at VMware Explore, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that VMware was our selected SD-WAN vendor,” McCutcheon said. “Since we’ve made that selection, we’ve finished the final design of our network integrating SD-WAN and begun to implement.”

As a result, McCutcheon said that the Providence WAN is rapidly becoming a strategic asset that enables the organization to be agile when new opportunities and demands arise. Now, Providence can move healthcare out of hospitals and into its network of ambulatory clinics.

No transition like this is flawless. In fact, Providence experienced an issue right off the bat. “During our very first cutover, we experienced an unplanned failover event during a morning executive briefing,” Hagen said. “This was a user, not a platform error. But after the event, we were pleased to be able to surprise the executives with the news that we’d had a failover. There was no perceived impact during their call. Since that time, we continue to see the same excellent responsiveness to circuit issues. The VMware SD-WAN platform provides detailed reportable telemetry on the performance of our network.”

Providence recently had another incident where they used telemetry within the SD-WAN to isolate an issue. “Because our internet upstream at our data center was the endpoint for multiple tunnels for multiple locations, we were able to identify that only some of those tunnels were impacted by a carrier issue unidirectionally,” McCutcheon said. “In short, we were able to feed that to our upstream provider to identify that there was a peering issue upstream of them. It was all available to us within the orchestrator, and it was enlightening.”

Maybe more important, Providence can now use telemetry to hold their carriers accountable and to identify the graded circuit performance despite the lack of impact on caregivers. We throw around terms like mission-critical all the time, which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t really accurate most of the time.

But, at healthcare organizations like Providence, those words ring true. They are, quite literally, saving lives. It’s nice to see the thinking that Providence put into their move to an SD-WAN. The willingness to rethink WAN operations and break the status quo is something all companies should consider.

The post How Providence Healthcare Redesigned its WAN for Digital Transformation appeared first on eWEEK.

Titled Five Emerging WAN Trends That Will Shape NetOps Strategy, the eBook opens with a discussion of the increasing importance of WANs. ThousandEyes identified key developments, including:

• Hybrid or software-defined WANs (SD-WANs).
• The increasing use of cloud-based services and SaaS (Software as a Service).
• The adoption of advanced security techniques like SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) and Zero Trust.

A decade ago, many C-suite executives considered the WAN a commodity. Today, my research shows that 71% of CxOs believe the network is strategic to the business. This makes sense as all emerging trends, such as hybrid work, cloud, mobility, and IoT are network centric. In some sense, a business can only perform as well as the WAN enables it to.

Let’s get into the five trends now.

Also see: Secure Access Service Edge: Big Benefits, Big Challenges

Trend One: WAN Backbone, With the Internet

I’ve said for a while that WANs must be more than pipes. This eBook confirms that view: the WAN needs to be a distributed ecosystem that works alongside and with the Internet. This kind of change puts ITOps teams in an unfamiliar position—they’ll have less control over digital environments.

Enterprise use of public clouds has grown considerably and shows no sign of slowing. The need for seamless connectivity has spurred a shift from MPLS backhauling to direct internet access and SD-WAN.

This comes down to user experience and expectations—something we look at in a later trend. The key is that infrastructure and operations leaders are out of their comfort zones, and existing networks may not be capable enough. So a good relationship with a service provider is essential.

Trend Two: Applications Become More Distributed

Where an application resides doesn’t matter if it just works whenever a user needs access. In the not-too-distant past, monolithic application architectures reigned supreme. One server or cluster could house an app for an entire global enterprise—laggy networks be damned.

The eBook notes, “The rapid evolution of applications has created opportunities for businesses to develop new and improved apps with faster performance.”

With distributed architectures, app developers must test more comprehensively—and build testing into architecture creation. I agree with the eBook’s view that NetDevOps will usher in closed-loop automation and service delivery will become the norm.

Trend Three: Greater Need to Automate Architecture

Automation has become almost a cliché. But the fun the naysayers have had obscures how it can help a WAN or IT department function more efficiently.

Boilerplate policies provided out of the box by network operators are inadequate, so the eBook notes, “IT is transitioning to automating policies to accommodate business needs and user experience. Their goal is for a greater correlation between application architecture and a dynamic network, and this work is developing the foundation for enabling intelligent network automation.”

Gartner says that 70% of organizations will implement infrastructure automation by 2025 (up from 20% in 2021). I think that figure understates the opportunity, as IT departments and network operations are racing to continuously improve, to meet user expectations, and stay competitive.

Trend Four: Seamless Experiences for Distributed Workforce

Not long ago, user experience didn’t even crack the top 10 of most IT departments’ priorities. The idea was that users would adapt to the way IT works, not the other way around.

But the rise of personal devices that focused on the user experience first and foremost gradually changed that calculus—dragging IT kicking and screaming into the future. Now user experience is paramount.

The eBook notes, “Everything changed with the pandemic, as it created momentum behind hybrid work, which places greater importance on user expectations and digital equity.”

A key to this trend is changing the way IT help desks work. Instead of waiting for issues to crop up and then fighting fires, help desks need to anticipate issues before they happen so the user experience remains seamless and consistent.

I would have ranked this as the first trend because it underscores the shift of priorities in IT. Plus, this is how users grade IT and network operations. All the whiz-bang tech doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t work.

For more information, also see: Understand the Differences Between 5G, WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E

Trend Five: User Expectations Require Continuous Improvement

Users are more dispersed than ever—and, despite all the calls to return to the office, workers will continue to work from all over the world and expect access to networks and apps no matter where they are.

So, with user expectations so high, businesses will have to improve networks continuously.

The eBook notes, “Continuous improvement is critical in delivering an outstanding user experience because it helps ensure that the right service is provided at the right time and place.”

As with all statements like that, there’s a caveat. As companies race to meet expectations, they’re deploying new tech, including LEO satellites, 5G networks, and Wi-Fi 6. These new technologies require new infrastructure and monitoring. All of this could combine to complicate the delivery of improved user experiences.

Traditional SLAs based on bits, bytes, and loss are not enough. They’ll need to measure tangible benefits to the business that can be monitored and verified.

Also see: NTT Addresses the Why and When of Private 5G 

Next Steps: the WAN and Network Operations

The above trends are interesting shifts to follow. Some of the actions to take are obvious, while others might not be so clear. The eBook makes five recommended next steps. These include:

1. Have a strategic plan for driving digital agility.
2. Put user experience and Internet unpredictability at the heart of network automation design.
3. Develop a view of baseline performance by auditing critical environments and applications.
4. Foster a culture of collaboration and address evolving workflows.
5. Ensure that solutions can scale, integrate, and support evolving operational processes across the digital business.

The eBook has more details on each of these recommendations.

In summary, today’s WAN is nothing like a decade ago or even five years ago. The WAN carries mission-critical information, connects us to cloud apps, enables us to connect socially, even when physically distant, and is the engine that runs businesses. Businesses need to re-think how they build, operate and manage their WANs.

The post eBook Review: 5 WAN Trends Shaping NetOps Strategy appeared first on eWEEK.

Verizon Frontline is a service dedicated to supporting first responders both during emergencies and regular, non-crisis days. The service, currently aiding 35,000 agencies across the U.S., helps prepare and respond to, mitigate, and recover from events through coordinated training exercises, data monitoring, and infrastructure maintenance.

The network’s focus is reliability and resiliency, with billions of dollars invested into infrastructure such as backup generators and fiber network diversification.

Also see: NTT Addresses the Why and When of Private 5G 

First Responders Need an ‘Always On’ Network

To ensure that the network remains operational during emergencies like storms and tornadoes, Verizon must provide reliable communications to first responders 24/7, 365 days a year.

Verizon recently hosted a webinar to share how it achieves that using various technologies and innovative solutions, in addition to providing a dedicated support team and network prioritization for first responders.

5G Powers Emergency Services

At the core of Verizon Frontline is a 5G ultra-wideband network that offers faster speeds, greater bandwidth, and lower latency than 4G. (A survey conducted by Verizon last year found that 80 percent of first responders view 5G as critical.)

On top of that, Verizon Frontline offers technologies and solutions that enhance the effectiveness of first responders. These include:

• A large fleet of nearly 600 deployable technology units and over 1,000 portable generators can be quickly dispatched to areas experiencing power failures due to natural disasters.
• Drone technology is used to create a portable 4G LTE bubble, but also to assist first responders in search and rescue operations. The drones can carry technology such as infrared devices to detect people trapped in remote or densely forested areas.
• Dedicated satellite links are used for backhauling mobile assets. The satellite links ensure continuous communication even in the most challenging circumstances.
• Wireless Network Performance is a subscription-based online portal that provides first responders with a detailed view of the performance of their communication network and the devices that rely on it.

Verizon is further developing innovative solutions and technologies based on feedback from first responders through its Frontline Innovation Program.

Verizon shared some examples of these innovations during the webinar, such as a high-tech police cruiser with 5G capabilities, robotic dogs that detect hazardous materials, mobile-connected electric bikes for remote areas, and a more compact rapid response connectivity unit.

Also see: What is Edge Computing

Former First Responders Build Response Team

Verizon Frontline has a Crisis Response Team, primarily composed of former first responders and military personnel. The team is responsible for deploying the necessary equipment during crises. It provides devices and emergency support by setting up portable cell sites, Wi-Fi hotspots, and charging stations.

In 2022, this team worked with almost 750 public safety agencies across all states, and it has responded to over 700 situations.

Depending on the situation, different types and sizes of equipment are deployed. The assets range from portable units that can fit inside a vehicle to mobile cell sites that require significant setup. Verizon Frontline has placed these assets throughout the country to be readily available wherever and whenever needed.

“Just recently, there was a massive string of very strong tornadoes that went through northern Texas to Louisiana and up to Ohio. We’ve actively deployed devices and solutions to those areas,” said Cory Davis, assistant vice president of public safety at Verizon Frontline. “We have many sites on backup generators. We think about the backhaul and the fiber, ensuring we have diverse routes for mission-critical communications. This is a core competency not only of Verizon Frontline but Verizon as a whole.”

Verizon Frontline employs various practices to ensure the safety of people and the continuity of services, according to Mary Donny, senior manager of the Global Event Management Center, which coordinates responses to incidents and events worldwide. The center provides threat monitoring and daily reports, summarizing incidents from the last 24 hours and potential ones. This came into being as the U.S. government sought help from the private sector to monitor hazards and early warnings about wildfires and extreme weather conditions so that organizations could prepare in advance.

The center also performs risk assessments by evaluating the network infrastructure in different areas, the people involved, and their readiness to tackle high-profile events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics. Additionally, it publishes a crisis management awareness report to alert those whom significant unplanned events might impact. There are eight crisis management teams worldwide, with four based in the U.S.

Also see: Unified Communications Tools Fuel Hybrid Work but Creates Risks

Bottom Line: Emergency Response Networks

Donny said Verizon remains committed to leveraging feedback from the community and first responders to continue refining its strategy. Having a robust 5G network, skilled personnel, ongoing innovation, and strategically placed assets ensures that Verizon Frontline can provide reliable communications in emergency situations now and in the future.

For more information, also see: Understand the Differences Between 5G, WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E

The post Verizon Frontline: 5G, Ultra-Wideband Emergency Response Network appeared first on eWEEK.

Cisco has a product portfolio that is arguably the broadest and deepest of any in infrastructure; Cisco gained some of these products through acquisitions. While this has enabled Cisco to fill gaps in its product line quickly, it added to the complexity of the end-to-end Cisco environment.

During his portion of the keynote, Cisco EVP and GM of Networking, Jonathan Davidson, stated, “To transform IT, we will have to conquer the complexity we have created over the last several decades.” He then talked about the benefit of simplification, touting the ability to connect more things while maintaining best-in-class security.

He added, “If we securely connect everything, anything is possible.”

It’s this concept of secure connectivity that has driven much of the product roadmap that was unveiled at Cisco today. In fact, for the past several months, the company has been running ads with the tagline “If it’s connected, it’s protected,” which foreshadowed many of the following announcements.

Also see: Top Digital Transformation Companies

Evolution of the Cisco Security Cloud

A year ago, at Cisco Live 2022, Cisco announced the concept of the Cisco Security Cloud, which brings together many of its security products and delivers them from a single cloud.

This enables faster threat identification and remediation versus having to correlate the information manually. At RSA this year, Cisco delivered the first proof point of this with the launch of XDR.

At CiscoLive 2023, the company announced its updated security service edge (SSE), which features the new Secure Access offering. This combines VPN, zero trust, CASB, and other security and network products to simplify user access. Typically, users are faced with a myriad of choices for the different types of application types – VPN for some private apps, ZTNA for others, direct access for web apps, and so on.

In this case, the user is the integration point for the technology, which leads to frustration and productivity losses. With Secure Access, users click once, and the Security Cloud makes the right decisions, enabling users to sit down and start working.

Secure Access isn’t only for users, as IT pros can administer through a single, cloud-managed console. I’ve been critical of Cisco in the past for having too many dashboards, but the new SSE one includes visibility, policy controls, analytic capabilities, and risk information.

Another security-related announcement is the use of generative AI to improve threat response and simplify policy management. The Cisco Security Cloud will include a generative AI-powered policy assistant that security pros can use to describe a policy and then evaluate how to implement it best. The first version of the AI assistant will evaluate and produce more efficient firewall policies, which almost all companies struggle with.

There is also a SOC Assistant to detect and respond to threats faster. When an incident happens, the generative AI assistant will contextualize events across e-mail, web, endpoints, and networks and inform the SOC engineer of what happened and the impact. The engineer can then interact with the assistant to remediate the problem.

Introduction of the Cisco Networking Cloud

The Cisco Networking Cloud is the network equivalent of the Cisco Security Cloud. The company currently has several disparate network products, including Viptela for SD-WAN, Meraki for cloud-managed networks, and its market-leading Catalyst line.

The vision is to create a single platform for all its products, similar to what Cisco has done with security. In reality, Cisco started this last year when it announced that customers could see Catalyst devices in the Meraki dashboard, but Cisco plans to unify all networking into a single, cloud platform.

This is a multi-year journey, with the first step including the following:

• Single sign-on (SSO) simplifies access across all Cisco network platforms.
• API key exchange/repository making it easier for Cisco networking products to connect and exchange data.
• Cross-platform navigation between the various products.
• Common user interface across all products.
• End-to-end assurance powered by the integration ThousandEyes with Meraki MX devices and WebexOS-enabled devices.
• Updates to the Meraki dashboard to enhance Catalyst troubleshooting and management.

Cisco is also simplifying the branding of its products. All enterprise-class products will now be branded “Catalyst,” which helps customers better understand the platform.

DNA Center will now be Catalyst Center, DNA Software will evolve to Catalyst Software, and Viptela will shift to Catalyst SD-WAN. ThousandEyes will retain its name as it’s an open platform used by companies other than Cisco.

Other developments from the Cisco event: 

The launch of Cloud Native Application Security (CNAPP)

Cisco is introducing its code-level cloud-native application security solution, Panoptica. This brings together cloud posture management and cloud workload protection in a single platform.

Full Stack Observability (FSO) General Availability

Cisco’s FSO offering is built on the integration of AppDynamics and ThousandEyes, enabling customers to correlate application issues with network insights better. FSO not only provides visibility across the stack but also offers actionable recommendations and insights.

Sustainability Data

Recently, I saw a data point that stated that 90% of organizations had set NetZero goals, but only 10% of companies can measure their progress toward them.

This is a problem as CEOs are now being called out by the media, customers, and investors to quantify where they are. During his keynote, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins mentioned that Cisco has its results audited annually, much like it does with its financials. To help customers close the gap, Cisco introduced sustainability data in its Nexus Dashboard and Webex Control Hub.

Nexus is Cisco’s data center management tool and can supply a wide range of insights related to energy usage and sustainability. These will include real-time and historical insights into the energy consumption, energy costs, and greenhouse-gas emissions of Cisco Nexus switches and other IT equipment in the data center. It will also monitor the ambient temperature of data centers to help improve cooling efficiency while keeping an eye on any additional servers, switches, storage, etc. connected to Panduit and Vertiv via integration.

The Webex management tool includes Carbon Emission Insights that monitor energy usage from Webex devices. Those insights have now been extended to understand the impact on data centers from Webex services like meetings and video. Companies can use the data to estimate emissions and to trend energy consumption output giving customers the data to improve their sustainability practices.

Also see: Top Digital Transformation Companies

Bottom Line: Cisco’s Progress

As an analyst and an engineer before that, I’ve been to somewhere in the range of 20 Cisco Live events (known as Networkers until 2007), and this is the best set of announcements I have seen.

I’ve been critical of Cisco’s complexity in the past, but it nailed the needs of its customers at Cisco Live 2023. Businesses need to move fast, which means IT pros need to move equally fast.

Cisco has great products, but it was often difficult to maximize the value of the Cisco platform. The cross-platform capabilities introduced this week will make things much simpler for it customers, which should, in turn, increase Cisco’s value to them.

The post Cisco Live 2023: Cross-Product Integration appeared first on eWEEK.

SoftBank plans to build data centers in Japan that, together with NVIDIA, can house generative AI and wireless apps on a shared server platform. This multi-tenant solution is expected to reduce costs and improve energy efficiency.

The proposed platform will utilize NVIDIA’s new MGX modular reference architecture with the GH200 Superchip, boosting the performance of application workloads. The Grace Hopper architecture, featuring 72 Arm Neoverse V2 processor cores with LPDDR5X, includes a combination of central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) for accelerated computing.

NVIDIA will be rolling out MGX later this year, with SoftBank as the first customer testing the architecture.

Also see: 100+ Top AI Companies 2023

Telco Modernization Requires Accelerated Computing

For the last six decades, most computing architectures have been primarily CPU-focused. These traditional designs are versatile and adapt well to various workloads, but are now being replaced by accelerated computing.

Accelerated computing uses a full stack, meaning it has both a CPU and an accelerator—like a GPU—working together to divide processing tasks. This approach is optimized to handle different workloads. Networking between these two elements is crucial for maintaining the best possible performance.

The joint platform will also leverage NVIDIA’s BlueField-3 data processing units (DPU) to accelerate 5G virtualized radio access network (vRAN) and generative AI apps. It’s expected to achieve 5G speeds in the range of 36 Gbps downlink capacity.

Compared to a single purpose 5G virtual RAN, this approach offers about four times the return on investment because a data center can also be used for AI, explained Ronnie Vasishta, Sr. VP of Telecom at NVIDIA, during a briefing with analysts.

Also see: Generative AI Companies: Top 12 Leaders

Open RAN Enables Greater Agility

Until recently, the main model for telecommunications was a proprietary RAN, developed as a single monolithic stack. This approach offers high performance but is expensive to maintain. Many have transitioned to an open virtualization RAN, moving their compute workloads to a server architecture.

However, a virtualized RAN has struggled to match the performance of a proprietary RAN. To overcome this, purpose-built accelerators were introduced. Yet these single-purpose accelerators could only be used for RAN workloads, resulting in poor performance and subpar cloud economics.

“Single-purpose networks purely for 5G must be built for peak demand. As new AI applications come in, that peak demand will grow. The power requirements are going to grow. The compute requirements are also going to grow,” said Vasishta. “We see a significant underutilization of the networks being built, and the return on investment (ROI) on 5G has been relatively low.”

NVIDIA has developed a GPU-accelerated, software-defined architecture, where one accelerator can run both AI tasks and RAN. This allows RAN and AI to coexist within a data center, which can be public, distributed, or on-premises. This approach essentially allows 5G to run as a software overlay on AI clouds, with the hardware remaining the same. In fact, as 6G algorithms get developed, they can be incorporated into the existing hardware, without requiring new hardware to be deployed.

Also see: Top Generative AI Apps and Tools 

Generative AI is an “iPhone Moment”

Vasishta called this an “iPhone moment for AI” (which is something NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has stated repeatedly) — the game-changing impact of artificial intelligence on data centers, akin to how the iPhone revolutionized smartphones.

This moment is marked by a convergence of two transformative factors in the tech industry: a change in computing architectures and the emergence of generative AI. Generative AI requires scale-out architectures, which is driving tremendous demand for networked “AI factories” or data centers, said Vasishta. Apps like chatbots and video conferencing, made possible by generative AI, are creating a significant demand on telecom networks.

NVIDIA is addressing this issue by making 5G infrastructure not just virtualized, but also completely software-defined. So, it’s possible to run a high-performance, efficient 5G network alongside AI applications within the same data center. This opens up new monetization opportunities for telcos like SoftBank and others, allowing them to become regional cloud service providers. By building an AI factory, they can also provide RAN services, thereby using their purchased spectrum more effectively.

SoftBank is exploring 5G applications in various sectors, including autonomous driving, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), computer vision, and digital twins. The partnership with NVIDIA is a significant step in the evolution of data centers, where the demand for accelerated computing and generative AI drives fundamental changes.

On a related topic: The Future of Artificial Intelligence 

The post SoftBank and NVIDIA to Bring Generative AI to Telcos appeared first on eWEEK.