January, 2017

Cloud technology has completely shaken and redesigned the IT world and forever changed the way businesses are run. It’s no wonder then, that increasing cloud adoption is impacting Wide Area Networks as well.

Since the introduction of WAN, constant research has been carried out to find ways to improve it. Over the last decade, Internet content, applications, and users have grown exponentially and now with the advent of cloud computing, networks are made to handle ever-increasing amounts of traffic.

In this scenario, existing WAN optimization or WAN acceleration solutions are no longer enough to stay competitive; a completely new and innovative approach is required to harness cloud technology to reap the twin benefits of increased productivity and profitability. This is where service providers, like Sify, have integrated network and cloud services to create a new transformational approach to redesigning the existing WAN landscape – WAN Transformation.

WAN Transformation defined

WAN transformation can be defined as ‘the process of enabling organizations to transit from its widely disparate and hybrid networks to an integrated cloud-enabled networking platform, where new approaches powered by the cloud technology drives substantial business benefits.’

What is driving WAN Transformation?

Organizations are facing several challenges and difficulties with their current network landscape–operational complexity along with the pressure created by increased traffic has made the need for change, imperative.

The biggest problems that businesses face – dealing with multiple network providers for separate voice and data networks, keeping up with latest technological upgrades, minimizing the risk of technological obsolescence, plugging security gaps, keeping the network safe against the latest security threats and keeping control of infrastructure and operational costs– can be easily overcome by transforming into a fully managed cloud-enabled WAN system.

By transforming their Wide Area Networks, a business can access the next generation of WAN services – Anywhere to anywhere connectivity with a network that is application aware and supports all cloud-based applications – all backed by industry-leading SLAs!

Network and Connectivity will play a major role in turning today’s businesses into tomorrow’s global organizations. To make enterprises future ready, the next generation of WAN services is essential. WAN transformation leverages the power of the cloud to provide businesses with uninterrupted and high-performance connectivity with centralized management and control, creating a strong network to serve as a springboard for business growth.

 

As the most successful Enterprise WAN service provider in the country, we understand what businesses need from their WANs. We offer services that range from the Data Center, network, cloud, application, and technology integration. Our decades of experience in building and managing complex network environments along with our network integration services make us the perfect partners for your WAN transformation journey.

Today’s hyper-connected and hyper-competitive marketplace needs enterprises that can react quickly and efficiently to the changing market scenarios.  To respond with speed to these new market expectations, businesses need 24×7 access to reliable and high-performance connectivity. From connecting employees spread across geographies to responding and engaging with customers –a high performance and secure Enterprise WAN is an essential tool for business success.

The emergence of cloud technologies has created an urgent need for companies to reassess their current Wide Area Network (WAN) infrastructures and it has become clear that to power their future growth, they need to invest NOW in the next generation of Enterprise WAN. Instead of the usual add-on WAN optimization and acceleration solutions, enterprises must undertake to transform their WAN ecosystem from the bottom up – turning it into an integrated, cloud-enabled networking platform.

To understand the fundamentals of WAN transformation you can read our first blog part of our more detailed WAN transformation series.

Over the last few years, while servicing its various clients Sify has acquired a deep understanding of the networking problems, bottlenecks, and requirements of enterprises across all industries. This feedback and understanding prompted Sify to create WAN Transformation services.

What are these business needs driving WAN transformation?

Organizations are continuously dealing with several pressing problems and challenges with their network services; in the long term, some of these issues can severely limit business growth.

Operational complexity – resulting from the need to manage hundreds, or in some cases thousands, of sites and dealing with multiple service providers for non-converged voice and data networks.

Managing infrastructure costs – spiraling CAPEX and OPEX costs while ramping up or down. Businesses are looking for an overall reduction of costs by integrating disparate networks.

Technology Obsolescence – Need to keep pace with technology innovation while eliminating the risk of investing in old or dying technology.

Enhancing Network Security –urgent need for a holistic and unified security system to plug all security issues due to overlapping networks and multiple providers.

Administrative challenges –managing multiple vendors with separate contracts and SLAs takes up enormous amounts of time and effort.

Enterprise WAN systems are expected to deliver a vast number of services and support new technologies and trends. The scope of the network services must increase to deal with various factors such as – Data Center virtualization, growing demand for the virtual workplace, the rise of BOYD culture, stringent business compliance and the need for faster, secure and reliable communication platforms. To manage the resulting complicated networking scenarios and infrastructure challenges, CIOs need to carefully consider WAN Transformation.

As the most successful Enterprise WAN service provider in the country, we understand what businesses need from their WANs. We offer services that range from the Data Center, network, cloud, application, and technology integration. Our decades of experience in building and managing complex network environments along with our network integration services make us the perfect partners for your WAN transformation journey.

Every year, businesses are incurring significant losses – they are losing money, customers and their reputation – due to cyber attacks. By 2019, cyber crime is predicted to cost businesses $2 trillion worldwide. So it’s hardly surprising that, from boardrooms to server rooms, almost all IT related conversation revolve around Security.

Data and IT infrastructure security have always been a huge concern for all businesses and now with IT systems moving to cloud platforms it has taken center stage on all IT agendas.

Security solutions have always been a key part of DC design and architecture and Data Center owners have worked hard to ensure the highest level of security and have scrupulously followed industry best practices for security and met all compliance norms. But Data Centers are complex ecosystems and protecting it requires that security requirements of every component must be considered separately, but at the same time follow a central, holistic security policy.

Here are some of the critical components and their special security requirements.

Physical Security of DC

Physical security of the Data Center building and its components is crucial for keeping the data within it safe. The Data Center building must be designed to weather all types of physical challenges, from terrorist attacks and industrial accidents to natural disasters. Enhancing physical security includes a variety of measures such as DC design with thicker walls and fewer windows and doors, enhancing CCTV monitoring, fire protection and investing in specialized security team.

Restricting Access

DC security team needs to keep a close watch on the people who enter the Data Center. From cleaning crew and internal IT staff to visitors, access to critical areas must be restricted and all movement must be tracked to ensure that unauthorized people are kept out of sensitive server rooms.

Securing your Data

All Data Center security is ultimately aimed at keeping the hosted data safe and private. This includes comprehensive measures such as complete data backup and recovery, using data encryption while transferring files, enforcing the latest data privacy regulations and comprehensive monitoring of traffic.

Network security

The first layer of network security is securing the perimeter by installing firewalls to clean up traffic right at the point of entry. This can be followed up by using the Zero trust model and inspecting and monitoring the internal traffic within the network, to detect and mitigate any threat that might have bypassed the perimeter firewall.

Server security

With virtualization, server security has become more complex and challenging. It is imperative to follow industry standards to ensure complete server security with 24×7 monitoring, intrusion detection and intrusion prevention. Comprehensive security solutions need to protect all virtual and physical server environments and infrastructure as well as all web-based applications.

All businesses face a very real risk. Cyber attackers are now targeting anyone and everyone, regardless of size or industry. And these attacks are becoming more aggressive and sophisticated.

Being at the receiving end of these attacks, Data Center companies are, of course, well aware of the extent of the problem and are devising equally aggressive and innovative ways to safeguard their businesses. The continuing fight against cyber attacks has resulted in DC security services market worth $6.36 billion, a number that is set to grow exponentially in the coming decade.

With over 15 years of experience in building and operating Data Centers and a decade of managing network security, Sify understands the ever-evolving nature of IT security. Enterprises can rely on our comprehensive security solutions to safeguard and grow their business. Our remote monitoring and management of networks, servers, applications and managed security services help enterprises cut costs while improving their security posture.

At this very moment, industry experts and visionaries are designing the future of IT services and systems. The vision outlines a fully enmeshed and embedded role for technology in our daily lives – from non-invasive micro tech providing real-time medical care and smart home technology to microcomputers -a web of smart and predictive devices that will connect all the different parts of our lives.

But to make this vision a reality, we need IT systems that provide a strong and flexible foundation to jump-start these innovations. We need Data Centers that facilitate rather than obstruct innovation, Data Centers that are proactive and are able to anticipate workloads and respond quickly.

As data explodes and newer technologies come into play, the next generation of DCs is likely to incorporate one or all of the following features to support future business needs.

Software defined Infrastructure

Simply put, in a software-defined Data Center (SDDC) all the components of the Data Center – compute, storage, security and networking are virtualized and delivered as a service. All the infrastructure functions and operations are completely automated by software and this allows SDDCs to provide a high degree of flexibility, efficiency, and reliability to the entire infrastructure.

Hyper converged Infrastructure

Hyper-converged DC combines and integrates all the DC services and infrastructure components such as compute, storage and network in one single box. Along with reduced complexity and costs, hyper-converged DCs provide enhanced operational performance and better disaster recovery and backup facilities.

Robotics and Automation in DCs

While robots will not replace humans in Data Centers anytime soon, there is a move towards using automation to take over repetitive and monotonous work, freeing up DC engineers to focus on more important issues. Companies have started experiments using robots to measure temperature and humidity in its Data Centers and several robotics manufacturers have already developed small robotic devices geared towards Data Center work.

Green Data Centers

Billions of devices are producing data every second, which ultimately ends up, stored in Data Centers across the globe. Increase in DC size and numbers will result in a corresponding rise in energy consumption. Future DC architecture will strive to be Green, with energy efficiency and conservation strategy at its core.

As with all IT changes and evolution, DC design and architecture will be a reflection of the needs and challenges faced by businesses. The next generation Data Center is not a fixed product yet; industry experts are in the process of defining its various components. It is still a concept and an evolving work in progress and the next 5 years will be crucial in shaping the new fundamentals of the next generation Data Center.

With over 13 years of operational and technical expertise (or 500+ man years of experience) serving over 300 customers spread across various industry verticals, viz., BFSI, Telecom, Pharma, Retail, Manufacturing, Media, etc., Sify has an impressive portfolio of over 2,00,000 sq. ft. of white space spread across 6 concurrently maintainable Data Centers, 15 Tier II Data Centers, 6 State Data Centers and several more for private clients, all built to exacting specifications and best-in-class global standards.

The world of Internet is steadily merging with the world of physical things. Out of this convergence is born Internet of Things (IoT), a giant global network connecting all web-enabled things (including people) in the world. From your coffee pot to your car to the cosmonaut orbiting around the earth, our virtual world will connect billions of smart devices with each other, creating an ecosystem where these things will have the ability to sense, interact and communicate with each other and influence actions and create services with or without human intervention.

As of 2011, there are more Internet enabled devices in the world than actual human beings. And it is predicted, that by 2020 there will be close to 50 billion devices worldwide. The enormous amount of data generated by these devices will obviously need to be stored and processed in Data Centers and will impact DC operations and architecture.

Impact on Data Centers

1. Optimizing storageAs more data is generated there will be a corresponding growth in demand for storage space. Not only will this lead to more Data Centers being built but will also lead to innovative ways for optimizing storage capacity with better servers and newer compression technologies.
2. Inbound data flow and network requirementsAs of now, DC architecture is designed to support large amounts of data flowing out to enterprises. Increase in IoT traffic will reverse this trend and see huge amounts of data, comprising a vast number of smaller data packets generated by individual devices, coming into the DCs on a regular basis. This will require Data Center owners to increase their inbound data bandwidth.
3. Security and data privacyWith the number of connected devices increasing, the networks have become more vulnerable to cyber attacks. The security landscape must be designed to deal with this ever-growing range of cyber threats. Also as more and more of our personal data is digitized and stored, Data Centers will need to ensure the highest level of data privacy.
4. Data Center locationsCurrently, Data Centers drive cost efficiencies by building large, single location DCs. With the increase in IoT data it will not be viable to transfer all this data to a centralized location. DC owners will have to build localized Data Centers to handle and process the local data traffic.
5. Cost efficienciesIt is virtually impossible to store all the IoT data generated, DC providers will have to look for more efficient ways to sort this data in real time to identify valuable data that must be stored and processed further. This will consume costly network bandwidth and processing power and further decrease the cost efficiencies currently enjoyed by DC companies.

Research firm IDC estimates, that global spending on IoT devices and services will touch $1.7 trillion by 2020. So while Data Center owners understand the challenges that are coming their way, they look at the rise of IoT as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Sify has over 16 years of operational and technical expertise in ‘designing, building and operating’ Data Centers, and can provide 360° DC build services, from planning, designing and building Data Centers to training support staff.

Running a business demands fast and reliable connectivity and this typically takes the form of investing in network hardware and staff for round-the-clock network management.

With NaaS (Network as a Service) this is all in the past. All you require now is a computer and an Internet connection to connect to your service provider network portal. NaaS is a cloud model, which provides businesses with network services over the Internet on pay-per-use or subscription consumption models. Network, the backbone of any company’s IT structure, is now available ‘as a service’!

Benefits of NaaS

The biggest advantage of NaaS is the complete control and flexibility that businesses can gain. Network administrators can exert total control on the allocation and provisioning of the bandwidth and as the network now exists in a virtual world, there is endless flexibility for network capacity and scalability. This flexibility also extends to the location of the business and of course, pricing models.

Shifting network services to the cloud saves the cost of investing in and running network infrastructure. This is guaranteed to result in immense cost savings for business that are running applications with thousands of users.

For companies with seasonal or sudden burst in workload NaaS allows instant ramp up and down of network capacity with just a few clicks.

With Network as a Service, businesses can eliminate all the hassle of managing and maintaining the network. The infrastructure and its complexities are invisible to the client; it is all taken care of by the service provider.

So why isn’t NaaS more widely adopted?

As with all big shifts to the cloud, the problems that emerge are grouped around security, compliance and reliability. NaaS is no different.  While it is not a new concept, enterprises have been slow to embrace it mainly due to concerns around issues of availability guarantees, SLAs and concerns regarding security, data privacy and compliance.

 It is safe to say that cloud computing will be the future platform for all businesses. As the move towards cloud accelerates, enterprises will need to consider network virtualization more seriously. After all, the benefits of cloud – speed, agility, low costs and scalability – have proven to be irresistible in the past.

We are Sify and we transform businesses for a digital world like no other. We are committed to building networks that allow businesses to provide information to its employees – anytime, anywhere and on any device.

To understand the importance of connectivity, let us imagine a day without it. Internet and phone lines are down. Your employees cannot access their mail; your offices cannot make or receive any calls; everyone from the CEO to the middle manager is left twiddling their thumbs as all their cloud hosted data and files are unavailable AND most importantly all your customer-facing applications are offline, turning away innumerable present and potential customers!

That reliable and highly available connectivity (Internet and telephony) is the lifeblood of the business world is irrefutable. In the present hyper-competitive scenario, organizations are increasingly turning to the latest technologies to achieve the best connectivity solutions at the most affordable prices. SD – WAN (Software defined – Wide Area Network) is the newest innovation to optimize WAN technology for faster, flexible and cheaper business connectivity.

SD – WAN explained

Enterprises have been relying on WAN networks to connect their branch offices; to ensure uninterrupted connectivity to remote locations they had to invest heavily in WAN infrastructure and bear the resulting maintenance costs. SD – WAN changed the landscape completely, allowing enterprises to only pay for the functionalities they require with their entire CAPEX investment amounting to small routers.

SD (Software defined) WAN is derived from the Software Defined Networking (SDN) technology, it utilizes software and virtualization technologies to create a WAN network that delivers faster, simpler and cost effective connectivity to businesses. SD –WAN achieves this by decoupling network software controls from the underlying hardware.

According to Gartner, SD-WAN has 4 main characteristics – it must be able to support multiple connection types, it must be capable of dynamic path selection, must be easy to configure and manage and should be able to support VPNs, and third party services.

So how does SD-WAN benefit businesses?

Application-driven technology

Applications are becoming increasingly complex and varied. The needs of these next gen applications can only be met with the flexibility and speed provided by SD-WAN’s use of hybrid networks, which provides secure access and fast connectivity at remote locations.

Security

Enterprise WAN networks are now open to a growing number of users accessing it from multiple points and from multiple devices. In such a scenario, security has become a weak point for WAN networks. SD –WAN provides enhanced security, delivered centrally via an API to cover your entire WAN landscape with comprehensive security solutions such as encryption and app firewalling.

Quick to deploy and easy to manage

One of the main advantages of SD-WAN is its ease of use and simplicity; it can provide extremely dependable connectivity to remote locations, which can be deployed within a few minutes and can be easily managed.

Cost efficient

Traditional WAN networks relied on expensive hardware which were seen as a necessary cost of doing business. With cloud-enabled connectivity, SD –WAN delivers enterprise-grade services without any CAPEX investment. With a number of service providers offering varied and competing packaged service offerings, businesses can now pick the functionality they need and pay for what they use.

Centralized control

Network managers have complete control and overview of their entire SD WAN network and all its components. This allows them to monitor the network in its entirety, optimize network usage and ensure centralized implementation of operational and security policies.

Whether you need to connect your HQ to remote branches or connect Data Centers across your organization, SD-WAN has transformed the network landscape by providing premium, secure, and simple cloud-enabled WAN connectivity.

With its obvious benefits, it is hardly surprising that SD WAN adoption is predicted to grow dramatically.By the end 2019, 30% of enterprises are expected to deploy SD-WAN technology,up from less than 1% today.

With the industry revenue expected to touch $6 billion by 2020, service providers are trying to attract new customers by offering a variety of SD-WAN based innovative services, which range from NaaS (Network as a Service) to specialized WAN appliances to cloud based WAN solutions. And as their legacy WAN technology comes up for technology upgrades, businesses will certainly consider these options.

Sify’s converged ICT ecosystem – comprising infrastructure and service offerings for cloud, telecom and Data Centers, allows it to offer enterprises end-to-end network services. Our SLA backed services will transform your business connectivity with enhanced network availability, reliability, performance and security.