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What’s Your New Year’s Resolution for Better Networks?

By Steve Wood, Blog Contributor

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2017 marks the year cybercrime went mainstream. Security breaches and ransomware splashed headlines, demonstrating the impact malicious hackers have in today's digitized world.

I could be exaggerating when I say that Asia Pacific is in the eye of the storm. With the advent of Mobility, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud, consider how organizations in the region are 80 percent more likely to be breached than their global counterparts. Did you also know that half of the infected systems in the first two days of the WannaCry outbreak were found in China? While almost every business and nation is embarking on digital transformation, the majority still struggle to get a handle on cybersecurity.

So what does 2018 have in store for us? One thing's for sure, cybercrime is not slowing down. With digital transformation in full swing, the network has become the foundation for organizations. Securing your business starts with securing your network, but that is already a given (if you don't have a sturdy network security strategy, you should get started now). In today's digital age, we need to aim towards delivering new levels of connectivity that ensures security while driving agility, innovation, and productivity. My take on getting there? Adding intelligence to your network, which is a personal business resolution I advocate.

An eye for intelligence

If mobile is the undisputed king of Asia Pacific, then IoT is the queen. The resulting device explosion introduces more devices than ever before to enterprise networks, revolutionizing workplaces and enabling new engagement models.

While this could translate to significant business benefits, it also stresses traditional networking architectures built for the client-server era. Legacy networks are simply not equipped to compute power, agility, and reach needed to support today's complex environments. For instance, connected devices in healthcare often don't have the luxury to wait for a centralized computer source to tell them what to do. At the same time, IT managers now have the added responsibility of manually managing multiple devices per person with unpredictable locations, new traffic patterns, and unknown shadow devices across a wide area.

Having complete visibility into your networks may help alleviate these pressures, but in device-dominated environments, this is hardly enough.

For the most part, intelligence is about automation: the network is smart enough to act and react autonomously. The simple act of having the network automatically identifying the devices that are connected, as well as the data and applications they can access, goes a long way in streamlining workflows and accelerating processes. This will ultimately reduce the strain on IT to cope with growing workloads, giving them breathing space to focus on innovation instead of maintenance. Aruba is focused on driving programmability and automation through its end-to-end framework encompassed through its mobile-first strategy.

With security continuing to be top-of-mind, next-generation end-to-end security solutions, such as Aruba 360 Secure Fabric, further demonstrate how they are empowering organizations to secure their business and infrastructure IoT through machine-learning, becoming smarter and faster at detecting threats coming through the network.

On the other end of the stick, intelligent networks can enhance end-user engagements. In a world where instant gratification is the new normal, having constant and multiple touchpoints—think real-time engagements like location-based marketing—is key to building stronger business relationships for healthier bottom lines. Sectors such as healthcare and retail can utilize intelligent networks to collect crucial data on user traffic patterns and automatically enable powerful BI tools to draw insights to help boost end-user satisfaction.

The technology landscape will not evolve slowly and neither should we. Like Gartner, I believe intelligence is the game changer of 2018. Having not just a robust network, but an intelligent one will be key for your organization to move as fast as technology advances.

Intelligence is my 2018 resolution. What's yours?