It’s natural for IT shops to replicate their current hardware and architecture when it’s time to refresh networking equipment. But refresh cycles provide a valuable opportunity to rethink — and improve — long-standing practices. Software-defined WAN applies software-defined networking principles over the WAN, redefining the management paradigm by operating the WAN as a holistic system…

In the past decade, organizations across all industries have come to realize that new technologies and methodologies can eliminate many of the management challenges that have traditionally been a part of supporting email and other applications. Today, the same thing is happening with storage, computing and networking. While cloud software has streamlined software support, technologies…

Digital transformation occurs when enterprises fundamentally change their business model, creating a shift in technology that affects IT culture and how value is being delivered to customers. Scale, referring to additional connected devices increasing data growth, is one of those technological changes. The Internet of Things, for example, is often a key component of digital…

At a recent trade show, someone referred to me as a software-defined networking veteran. This struck me as odd, because I’ve only been talking about SDN for five years, but also as being true — because I’ve been studying it for five years. I started speaking about this technology because it was so clear to…

Branch offices can be a double-edged sword, depending on an employee’s role in the organization. For product managers and other businesspeople, branches are a great way to expand into new geographic markets, grow the customer base and drive revenue. But for CIOs and IT managers, branch offices can be a headache, increasing the scope and…

When people talk about a paradigm shift, it’s often an exaggeration. But intent-based networking is one of those rare exceptions that actually represents a departure from the past. Intent-based networking leverages software-defined networking (SDN), artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a fundamentally different — and better — way to provision, manage, scale and secure…