Future-ready connectivity for business growth

Kurtis Lindqvist at LINX explores how CTOs can decide what networking technologies will be important for their organisations and how should they harness them, especially if there is an absence of skills and experience

The expansion of digital transformation initiatives, cloud migration and mass adoption of cloud-based applications have changed how businesses use internet connectivity.

Yet as businesses seek to innovate and scale, they need to reassess their network options so they can avoid significant problems with weak resilience, latency and security.

The rise of streaming and content delivery have exponentially increased data volumes, putting strain on many networks. The global content delivery market is forecast to grow 11% every year from $22bn last year to $37bn. Edge computing is steadily developing, and despite processing data close to where it is generated, will still need to transmit high volumes back to the cloud.

As businesses drive forward digital transformation and growth ambitions, key technology leaders, including chief technology officers (CTOs), network managers and network architects, are under pressure to decide how to harness technological advances for greater efficiency, sustainable growth and better end-user experiences.

A change of approach is often necessary since the creation of a robust digital strategy to support the growth of their organisation extends beyond cloud-centric solutions.

Business is more complex

Once it was a question of buying wholesale services from traditional telecom solutions, but business IT has become steadily more complex with the mass adoption of hybrid and nomadic working and the proliferation of applications and tools. The embedding of remote working patterns is a significant traffic-generator, for example. The market for collaboration software is forecast to grow from $19.5bn in 2022 to almost $53bn in 2032.  Internet traffic is constantly growing. Statista estimates the number of internet users in the UK will increase from 61.75 million this year to 64.46 million in 2029.

Businesses can no longer make simple assumptions about internet connectivity and its resilience. The complexity of solutions makes diversity of interconnectivity vital.

Organisations require greater diversity to ensure the scalability and resilience they seek. Reliance on a single cloud provider no longer meets requirements. In a cloud-centred world, businesses cannot simply click a mouse to buy a connection to AWS and expect it to meet all their needs as they scale. They need multiple suppliers and multiple clouds.

Scaling requires diversity of internet connections 

Many start-ups have new networks designed to deliver smart digitalised services which more established businesses look on with envy. Yet for a large company to ensure it remains resilient while scaling requires access to diverse connections and an understanding of which solutions work best from a wide range of options.

The quality of interconnections is becoming more critical. CTOs need to know more about the path their traffic takes and the components they must put together. End-to-end understanding of the data journey is necessary for the provision of the improved user experiences customers now expect. This demands a vendor-neutral approach, as does security, which encompasses more than the prevention of phishing and spoofing.

There is a need for a more comprehensive network strategy that includes cloud diversification, redundancy, and flexible interconnectivity solutions. Organisations should have access to more than traditional connectivity options.

To make the right choices, however, business leaders and CTOs need reliable, trustworthy feedback on their options. This is where Internet Exchange Points can help, providing access to multiple connections. Budget pressures mean organisations are more restricted. Yet they can optimise their growth strategies if they access specialist expertise on interconnectivity from a single, objective provider that can simplify it all.

An approach that is free of bias towards specific vendors is essential. It is a question of selecting the right options and ensuring they continue to meet business requirements. With the right partners, CTOs can build their own auditing standards, identifying any potential network problems with outages or latency, for example, so they can be dealt with rapidly and with minimal impact on business performance. 

The right interconnection partner

LINX (London Internet Exchange) is a not-for-profit organisation that is a good example of an organisation that businesses can partner with to transform their interconnections for growth. Its membership community is made up of a wide range of technology professionals and it offers deep expertise and more than traditional cloud connectivity options.

With access to the expertise and flexibility of such an organisation, businesses can make the right choices that give them the resilience and control they need. If a network goes down, re-routing is swift, ensuring their traffic uses the most suitable network.

Having access to the most suitable options enables an organisation to ensure it can deliver new services and products and scale quickly. Latency is improved through more direct peering with network operators, using less hops while keeping traffic closer to the end-user. This provides the superior customer experience that business customers and consumers now expect. In content delivery, streaming or gaming, for example, the benefits are in reduced lag and buffering. With full visibility, businesses can address most potential difficulties with latency before they happen.

As the internet developed, content delivery became a phenomenon, and cloud migration increased. More developments are certain, many of which we cannot foresee. In this environment of change and innovation, a multi-faceted approach is critical.

Network architecture has constantly evolved and will continue to do so. Businesses can scale more effectively, and optimise innovation and delivery, if they choose the right partner to boost their performance and simplify growth. Diversity and resilience are both within reach as foundations for expansion.

Kurtis Lindqvist is CEO at the London Internet Exchange, LINX, a not-for-profit organisation that helps businesses connect to cloud services, create closed user groups and private VLANs, and gain access to colocated infrastructure

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and imaginima