Enterprise networking is becoming increasingly complex these days. With several applications, including physical security, access control and surveillance moving to a common IP platform, network management has become an extremely important component in enterprise IT.
As data-voice-video, ERP and other applications are moving to networks, organizations cannot afford any network downtime. Service providers are looking for innovative strategies to address the demands from key market segments like telecom, manufacturing, FMCG, IT/ITES, etc.
Here’s a look at some of the latest technology trends and key offerings from providers.
Software Defined Networking (SDN): SDN is gaining popularity among mid to large enterprises. Allied Telesis, an SDN specialist, says there is increased demand for the technology in government, education, utility and IP surveillance markets.
According to Subhasish Gupta, country manager – India & SAARC at Allied Telesis, latest technology trends like cloud and wireless will dominate the networking industry in the next 2-3 years. With new infrastructure projects like smart grid and smart cities in the offing, developing countries like India will offer enormous potential for networking.
“Virtual to cloud, and the next thing in India is “Smart” – smart networks, smart applications, smart devices and smart cities,” Gupta added.
AMF, the SDN offering from Allied Telesis, is characterized by high resiliency and the ability to offer a close to 99.9999 percent uptime, Gupta said.
“We haven’t yet come across a single customer who doesn’t find our SDN solution to be very interesting solution, which ensures that they are close to zero networks down times, as well as, reduces their requirement of high cost, network literate manpower, thus yielding high ROI’s for the organization,” he added.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Networks are getting congested due to the enormous amount of data flowing across different devices and applications. With DLP, organizations can have effective control over their data. Providers like ACPL offer DLP solutions that provide data flow analysis, data classification, implementation and integration of technology. It also helps in remote monitoring and forensics.
“Lot of our customers have got benefited from our DLP practice, they have now very tight control on their Data Flow and are able to control the critical data,” says Vishal Bindra, CEO, ACPL. “Huge RoI has been realized because of prevention of various important documents which were controlled and were not allowed to be sent to unauthorized users.”
According to Bindra, the market for DLP is driven by key applications like Data and Application Security, Identity and Access Management, Advanced Malware Protection, SOC.
Application Delivery Networking (ADN): In simple terms, ADN refers to the integration of application delivery, security frame work and optimization. Cloud based ADN solutions are growing in popularity. Providers like Array Networks offer application delivery solutions for enterprise, service provider and public sector organizations.
Cloud and mobility are driving the demand for application delivery solutions, says Shibu Paul, regional sales director – India, ME and SEA at Array Networks. To address the market demands, Array Networks has launched ADN as a service with few of the large cloud providers who will be offering it to end customers on a pay as you go subscription model, Paul added.
Array Networks is serving government, BFSI and telecom industry. According to Paul, IT security industry is one of the major growth areas for the company as security remains an area of increased spending across industries.
Virtual Storage solutions
Virtual storage solutions find great applications in BFSI and eGovernance datacenters. Sriram S, CEO at iValue InfoSolutions, says Unified Compute Platform (UCP) has evoked great interest especially for workloads for which these are pre-tested and optimized.
UCPs comprising compute, store and network integrated with single orchestration module are gaining huge popularity. UCPs optimized for popular workloads like SAP ERP, Oracle database, Big-data analytics have the highest relevance and interest with enterprise customers, according to iValue.
Hybrid cloud adoption with integrated view and management between private and public is also driving the demand for iValue solutions. Enterprise mobility solutions with BYOD needs; single sign-on with password management across applications; information rights management within and outside enterprise; and virtualization – server, storage, desktop and now network; application performance management thru server and link load balancing; and bandwidth management are also pushing the industry forward.
Network Security solutions
The latest trends like cloud services, mobile computing, virtualization, BYOD and social networking have led to increasing demand for security solutions that ensure comprehensive protection from cyber threats in these platforms, as well as facilitates efficient IT security management in a cost-effective way.
As Govind Rammurthy, MD and CEO, eScan, puts it, “Network security solutions are a must in today’s hostile environment. Simply by deploying Network Security devices do not suffice, they should also provide monitoring and alert features.”
According to Rammurthy, pro-active timely updates for the products as and when vulnerabilities are disclosed as well as seamless deployment of such updates should be facilitated. Deployment of malicious traffic detection rules should be an easy task for the admins. Moreover, vendors should promote deployment/integration of community based rule-sets to avert attacks.
eScan specializes in enterprise security products, all of which have cloud integration and support for hybrid networks. The company recently launched eScan Corporate 360, New eScan Corporate Edition and eScan Endpoint Security with hybrid network support.
The above mentioned are a few among the many solutions available in the industry. As technology advances, enterprise IT is set to address the emerging network challenges arising out of the latest trends such as big data, mobility, cloud and social media.
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