by Stuart Hardy, Business Unit Manager of EOH’s Carrier and Network Solutions Division

The growing importance of network optimisation

Network optimisation is by no means a new concept. However, different users, applications and processes compete more and more for network resources, moving management and optimisation higher up the agenda. This is especially so in light of mobility, the ever-increasing growth of networks, and the applications and volumes of data that run on and flow through them. And the rate of growth is such that it places constant increasing strain on network architectures.

Financial considerations also need to be taken into account, particularly in the current economic climate. It is estimated that companies spend an average of 10% of their budgets on IT operational factors, with the management of data flow across networks making up a sizeable proportion of this.

Network optimisation affects the entire network, from the point of individual workstations through to the network servers and beyond into LANs and WANs. Hardware and software tools are important elements of network optimisation, but should not be relied on as the only methods. Companies need to examine and evaluate all aspects of their networks with a view to redesigning, consolidating or replacing systems and applications. In tandem with this comes the need to examine internal processes to ensure that network resources are allocated and used as efficiently as possible.

Thus it becomes clear that network optimisation is an imperative. It is a key element in large globally based network and application deployments. However, all of this is expensive to maintain in terms of costs, skills and resources, making it important to look for more sophisticated and cost-effective approaches to network optimisation.

Global cloud-based network optimisation

Due to the increasing benefits presented by optimisation services over longer distances, its stands to reason that the development of a cloud-based globally distributed optimisation solution would provide multinationals with a much needed alternative to using global MPLS networks alone.

However, if you were able to develop a globally deployed MPLS network, with an optimisation capability at the edge, you could combine trusted MPLS technology with optimisation capability in the core of the network. This combination provides global organisations with the perfect mixture of technologies to address application management and cost.

It is for these and other reasons that EOH NS is set to partner with one of the world’s largest and most successful cloud optimisation networks. This global optimisation network consists of a 22-site global MPLS nodes that extends to every continent and every major city in the world. At the heart of the MPLS network, and deployed at its edge, is the cloud-based optimisation platform that provides global optimisation services and capability.

This combination of network and optimisation provides a powerful value proposition to companies with globally distributed sites, small or large. Connecting to the network can be provided by porting directly onto the local MPLS node, or even using a local in-country Internet service to tunnel into the optimisation capability.

 

Stuart Hardy has been in the ICT industry since 1997, has been in the Telecommunications industry since 1997, intimately involved in product development, operations and product marketing roles. He has held Executive level positions in some of the largest Operators in South Africa and has founded and driven two successful start-up companies in the Mobile data and Wireless networking spaces. Today, Stuart is a Divisional Director for EOH in their Telecommunications sector.