Organizations have been re-imagining the way they view and utilize the network for some time now. After the accelerated network investment in recent years—driven by the digitalization of everything and pandemic-related hybrid working—some may assume that the projected economic decline will result in a corresponding slowdown in network transformation.
The narrative of our time is uncertainty, and the past three years is living proof that we can’t overestimate our chances and risk falling victim to poor strategy. Businesses have navigated the first hurdles of disruption by prioritizing digital-first and changed the consumer landscape as we know it forever—but every lag, delay, and outage must be prevented to keep the momentum going.
In a digital-first world, consumers have little tolerance for disruptions to their platforms and services. Take for example the recent interruptions to digital services that made the headlines:
Businesses and households in Asia and across the globe that rely heavily on WhatsApp as a form of communication, were sent into a frenzy as an outage ensued in October last year.
Even more recently, Twitter experienced yet another major global outage that obstructed users from accessing external links, and the tech team went on a hunt to identify the bug. The breakdown was reportedly fixed within the hour, but not fast enough to stop raising a few eyebrows in our consumer-dominated world.
The lesson: Consumer patience is wearing thin when it comes to any form of disruption that results in downtime. In the current digital-first economy where networks serve as the backbone powering our everyday lives and day-to-day operations, high-performing networks will be critical for business continuity. Downtime, whether attributed to poor network connectivity or bad programming, can be disruptive – especially in a time where digital natives prioritize speed and seamless connectivity.
Outages represent more than just inconvenience for consumers – they come at a price for businesses as well, and a hefty one at that. In fact, according to a 2022 survey by The Uptime Institute, the cost of downtime is costing—directly and indirectly—more than US$1 million, with a further 45 percent of respondents reporting a loss of between US$100,000 and US$1 million during their most recent outage.
Zooming in to Southeast Asia, the Singapore enterprise market is poised to reach S$6.75 billion (US$5 billion) in networking infrastructure spend by 2025—factoring in the progressive IT modernization and digital transformation efforts of local businesses in years to come—making network services a mainstay of the digital economy.
To gauge the C-suite’s understanding of where and how a network can deliver against modern business needs, Aruba commissioned a survey with Sapio Research for valuable insights that can help businesses reach their goals by leveraging technology. The survey findings are telling: one in four business leaders have only a functional or limited understanding of the enterprise network’s true potential.
Furthermore, half of the respondents believe that accessing data is essential for unlocking new revenue streams, yet 53 percent are unaware of how the network can drive innovation. This knowledge gap can significantly impact an organization’s ability to unlock new revenue streams that could set them apart from the competition.
Often, IT leaders talk about technical specifications which may not resonate with business leaders. To bridge this knowledge gap, IT pros need to speak the business language and communicate to the C-suite how business outcomes can be driven from the network.
An agile network-as-a-service (NaaS) solution enables organizations to match network capacity to ever-changing business needs, ensuring they have the resources to succeed. Businesses can take advantage of network offerings to not only prevent any dreaded outages, but enable them to stay ahead of the curve, once they have a clear understanding of NaaS and its benefits.
With a more innovative, agile, and optimized network, both business and IT leaders hold the secret weapon to tread with flexibility and resilience through the prevailing headwinds.
