Connectivity is a commodity, until it’s not.

Explaining the need for network stability, enhancement, and transformation.

Once a premium, differentiated service, connectivity has become standardised, widely available, and largely indistinguishable across providers in terms of core functionality, until it doesn’t work, that is.

For most companies today, high-speed connectivity via fixed-line fibre or 4G and 5G mobile broadband has become commoditised, much like water and power, which means that access to the service is the bare minimum expectation.

However, just like when the lights go out or the taps run dry, a lack of connectivity suddenly becomes the only thing that matters.

Since cloud computing hit critical mass, with most companies leveraging private, public or hybrid clouds to make apps and services available to everyone, anywhere, the expectation is that connectivity needs to work seamlessly and securely with a stable quality of service (QoS).

This paradigm shift has flipped the script on the concept of a “dumb pipe” – the lowest cost option that simply delivered the bandwidth needed to support on-premises enterprise applications. The rise of distributed networks means a “dumb pipe” cannot guarantee performance across these disparately located systems.

The modern network requires a managed services provider that can stabilise, enhance and transform the network into a “smart pipe” that prioritises traffic, unlocks additional functionality, and supports a growing number of new services to meet a company’s current and future requirements.

Stabilise: from chaos to control.

In a multi-cloud environment, a lack of visibility, fragmented vendor relationships, and finger-pointing when something goes wrong frequently compromises network performance.

Networks today need the intelligence to understand application types and apply QoS policies to ensure critical applications receive the necessary resources. For instance, real-time collaboration tools, video conferencing, and AI workloads all demand low latency and high bandwidth.

In this environment, reliability is about more than just speed. It relates to how the connectivity solution tracks the critical applications that drive the business. This might involve technologies like Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) that intelligently route traffic based on application needs and network conditions.

In this regard, stabilising connectivity is about understanding the business requirements – defining the base level of performance needed to operate and how to support everyday business activities with sufficient resiliency baked in – and centralising the responsibility to meet these standards.

When there is no clear demarcation of responsibility among service providers and vendors, one provider blames the other, often leaving the client stuck in the middle. Giving a managed services provider the opportunity to serve as the single point of accountability for the full lifecycle of services provides full visibility into network performance, from users to applications.

This mandate to manage the network from end to end ensures the managed services provider can become a trusted advisor, identifying issues quickly, troubleshooting to rapidly resolve them, and meeting the standards required for external and internal user experiences (UX). 

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all rip-and-replace job, though. It’s a precision-led, cost-effective reset that creates the stable foundation needed to progress to the next phase.

Enhance: elevating performance where it matters most.

A stable foundation gives companies the ability to start enhancing the experience by adding new features and products that shift connectivity from a basic utility into a strategic enabler for digital transformation.

This phase focuses on experience, optimisation, and measurable improvements in productivity and performance with value-added services like network analytics and call recordings for in-depth visualisation, analysis and QoS, cloud peering, direct connections to cloud providers, managed security services, and the functionality needed for compliance.

This phase aims to continually improve the network, leveraging a consultative approach to improve what is already in place and identify potential areas where additional solutions can potentially enhance performance or address bottlenecks, rolling out these initiatives according to available budget and the highest priority services based on a needs analysis. 

These enhancements could include introducing global on-ramps for public and hybrid cloud access, ensuring secure, low-latency routes to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and others, leveraging Session Border Controller as a Service (SBCaaS) to simplify, secure, and intelligently route voice traffic, or deploying SD-WAN, LAN/Wi-Fi, and firewall enhancements as “cookie-cutter” kits, delivered at scale with consistency and speed.

Adding AI-enabled observability and analytics would provide additional actionable, near-real-time data, which helps inform the progressive migration that aims to enhance services and achieve the transformation objectives.

Transform: the new network.

With an enhanced and optimised network, organisations can start to consider their future needs, planning how they can transform the network to use it more effectively to increase business performance, rather than just enable it.

This stage may take the form of a phased transformation or a rip-and-replace approach when wholesale changes are needed to create a future-ready network.

The general direction the market is moving is towards cloud-driven, AI-managed network operations. This consumption-based model offers the flexibility and adaptability to embrace emerging technologies and respond to market changes.   

Ensuring this network of the future performs optimally requires KPIs that extend beyond basic availability because simply remaining up does not guarantee quality.

The need to constantly manage and monitor performance and usage requires 24/7 support, relationships with every provider, and visibility into every system, which is onerous for a company to manage itself with limited resources in the internal IT department, particularly multi-nationals.

Working with a managed services provider can alleviate the headache associated with building and managing advanced networks that support new capabilities like AI, which can also require training, and sourcing scarce skills.

A managed service provider gives a company access to these skills and capabilities, with benefits that extend to all other vital aspects of a network transformation, from cyber security and compliance to managing an international footprint of internet service providers and a selection of best-of-breed technology solutions to meet a company’s specific current and future network requirements.