The Fourth Industrial Revolution is disrupting almost every industry in almost every country. There will soon be billions of people connected by mobile devices that have unprecedented processing power, storage capacity and limitless access to knowledge.
In this new era, networking will provide a critical foundation for success for all kinds of businesses as well as individuals. According to IDG, start-ups stand a chance to increase their revenue by 34% by relying on digital-first strategies while enterprises can see a positive increase of 23%.
More recently, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is starting play a bigger role in network transformation. SDN will allow players across the ecosystem to connect, scale new services and transform industries. It will enable solutions like the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to go global by removing the limits on how we get connected.
Having the right SDN platform is key, however, the underlying network is the crucial backbone for that offering. If you choose the right SDN platform, or more importantly the right network service provider, you’ll be ready to deliver vertical solutions and accelerate how and where they get adopted. This is especially crucial for smaller managed service providers or software providers that offer tailored solutions to their enterprise customers. While some providers will operate with basic infrastructure, the best providers have carrier grade Global WAN networks.
Here are five things to look for when choosing an SDN platform that’s ready to support the Fourth industrial revolution:
Connecting Cloud, Content and Continents On-Demand
A self-service model removes all the complexities from global connectivity and enables users to control their services. If you aren’t in the driver’s seat, you won’t be able to move fast enough in this new era. On-demand connectivity is essential as a user experience that reduces the number of steps it takes to connect to the Cloud or across the globe.
Built for Hyper-Scalability
SDN platforms need to be ready to scale to deliver 100G on-demand and beyond. High-capacity deployments are growing, and new and demanding applications will only increase the need for hyper-scalability. An SDN platform has to be ready for a future that is hyper-connected and bandwidth hungry. SDN platforms need more than a basic LAN network to be able to support this increasing scalability, and not all providers can offer this.
An API-First Approach
An API-first approach means the network provider is developing APIs for internal uses, as well as presenting services to their partners and customers via network APIs. That enables users to incorporate network services into their existing platforms or bundled with their solution. Whether that’s connecting Cloud-based applications for financial institutions or IoT solutions for the Oil & Gas industry, APIs are essential.
Rapid Collaboration Across Networks
An SDN platform should not be limited to one company’s footprint. Cross-Carrier Automation is realising the potential of having global reach. New destinations should be coming online all the time with a growing depth of infrastructure available to users. The benefit of Cross-Carrier automation is being able to maintain the user experience while keeping networking simple in an increasingly complex market.
A Future-Proofed Ecosystem
SDN is an evolving ecosystem. Adding new Points of Presence, Cloud Service Providers and Internet Exchanges to the platform means it is keeping up with future demand. At the same time, an SDN platform should be adding new service capabilities beyond networking to ensure user success. These services can be seamlessly threaded across the platforms to simplify deployments for the end user. The ecosystem must continually evolve to serve new and growing user needs.
At Epsilon, we are delivering SDN that enables our partners to meet the needs of the Fourth industrial revolution. Infiny by Epsilon gives you a foundation for innovating and developing the solutions of the future.
If you’re interested in trying our platform, you can self-register on Infiny and gain on-demand access to our Global Interconnect Fabric.
