Few developments have affected businesses in the past few years as much as the burning desire for bandwidth. As enterprise environments expand, complications are inevitable. Proper information storage and security are increasingly vital as more businesses transition to data-driven initiatives. They're also becoming harder to attain. Many organizations find themselves caught in a tangled web of carriers, data centers, service providers and connectivity requirements. A lack of interoperability between services and poor communication among stakeholders can make undoing these knots an expensive and resource-intensive slog. It induces broadband rage and burns a lot of bandwidth in the process.
Optimizing connectivity needs to be a foremost concern in today's business model. In theory, it means providing enough bandwidth to create sufficient breathing room for all locations and stakeholders. In practice, an organization needs to centralize its connectivity support. Data Center Knowledge contributor Bill Kleyman recently discussed some fundamental changes in information technology that should compel companies to consider building their business model around their data center network.
"Business used to establish their practices and then create their IT department. Now big (and smart) businesses are approaching data centers and technology from a completely different angle," Kleyman wrote. "These visionaries see that the future revolves around complete mobility and true device-agnostic connectivity."
Examples Kleyman highlighted included cloud-based data distribution models, which support expanding application development and processing environments. He also observed that new ways of computing, such as virtualization and software-defined networking, place more emphasis on minimizing granular infrastructure management and centralizing IT. Complexity in digital compliance and data governance can also be assuaged by a centralized connectivity platform.
Looking at bandwidth as a business model involves seeing technology as a critical role player rather than simply as a means to get things done. Connectivity infrastructure can and should contribute directly to bottom-line thinking. Paring down the number of service providers to a basic carrier-agnostic data center model can provide more bandwidth integrity and fewer headaches.