How to Navigate Market Pressures with Cloud-based Network Management
By:
Shruthi
Kalale
Prakashan,
Sr.
Manager,
Product
Marketing,
Aruba
Central.
For
many
organizations
large
and
small,
the
COVID-19
pandemic
was
the
tipping
point
for
cloud
adoption.
By:
Shruthi
Kalale
Prakashan,
Sr.
Manager,
Product
Marketing,
Aruba
Central.
For
many
organizations
large
and
small,
the
COVID-19
pandemic
was
the
tipping
point
for
cloud
adoption.
Unsurprisingly,
more
than
half
of
enterprise
IT
spending
in
key
market
segments
will
shift
to
the
cloud
by
2025,
according
to
Gartner.
[1]
As
the
cloud
continues
to
play
a
key
role
in
building
resilience
and
enabling
agility,
the
role
of
the
network
is
more
critical
than
ever
before.
However,
the
transformative
benefits
of
cloud
cannot
be
realized
(or
may
even
be
negated!)
without
a
modern
network
to
support
it.
How
should
IT
organizations
modernize
their
network
management
in
response
to
new
market
pressures
and
how
can
a
cloud-based
approach
help?
Four
modern
network
management
challenges
Today’s
network
is
facing
new
market
pressures,
including:
-
Hybrid
work
becomes
mainstream:
According
to
Gartner,
if
an
organization
were
to
go
back
to
a
fully
on-site
arrangement,
it
would
risk
losing up
to
39%Â of
its
workforce.
[2]
Enabling
secure
and
efficient
hybrid
work
is
now
table
stakes
for
IT
teams. -
Growing
network
complexity:
Networks
are
growing
in
size
and
complexity,
often
leading
to
siloed
network
management
with
multiple,
disjointed
tools
that
result
in
a
high
rate
of
manual
errors,
alert
fatigue,
and
downtime. -
Compliance
and
security:Â Securing
the
network
is
harder
than
ever
before
due
to
the
rapid
implementation
of
cloud-based
services
in
response
to
the
pandemic
and
the
increasing
adoption
of
IoT. -
Critical
talent
shortage:Â Organizations
are
increasingly
struggling
to
recruit
and
retain
talent
with
specialized
skills. Only
12.5%Â of
enterprises
believe
it
is
very
easy
to
hire
and
retain
skilled
networking
professionals.
[3]
It
comes
as
no
surprise
that
network
operations
professionals
believe
they
could
reduce
problems by
nearly
half if
they
had
better
network
management
tools.
[4]
How
can
cloud-based
network
management
help?
Cloud-based
network
management
solutions
are
gaining
traction
as
organizations
seek
to
consolidate
their
tools,
drive
better
efficiencies,
and
lower
costs.
In
fact,
IDC
projects
that
half
of
all
new
implementations
will
rely
on
cloud-based
network
management.
Aruba’s
cloud-based
network
management
solution
–
Aruba
Central
–
is
a
powerful,
scalable
solution
that
offers
a
single
point
of
visibility
and
control
to
oversee
every
aspect
of
wired
and
wireless
LANs,
WANs,
and
VPNs
across
campus,
branch,
remote,
and
data
center
locations.
Built
on
a
cloud-native,
microservices-based
modern
architecture,
Aruba
Central
is
an
AI-powered
solution
that
simplifies
IT
operations,
improves
agility,
reduces
costs,
and
minimizes
risk
by
unifying
management
of
all
network
infrastructure.
Benefit
1:
Improved
agility
-
Zero-touch
provisioning accelerates
the
process
of
onboarding,
configuring,
and
provisioning
network
devices
with
a
guided
setup
wizard,
flexible
configuration
options,
and
an
intuitive
installer
app. -
‘Single
point
of
control’ that
enables
IT
to
stage
configuration
changes
just
once,
instantly
validate
them
and
push
the
new
settings
to
every
applicable
device
across
the
network,
eliminating
device-by-device
updates. -
Enhanced
programmability with
open
APIs
and
webhooks
makes
it
easy
to
integrate
with
other
tools
in
the
technology
stack
such
as
ServiceNow,
Ansible,
Slack
and
much
more.
Benefit
2:
Enhanced
efficiency
-
AIOps and
automation eliminate
manual
troubleshooting
tasks,
reduce
average
resolution
time
by
as
much
as
90%
for
common
network
issues,
and
increase
network
capacity
by
as
much
as
25%
through
peer-based
configuration
optimization. -
User
experience
monitoring provides
user
and
IoT
device
application
assurance
and
rapid
troubleshooting
through
easy-to-deploy
Aruba
User
Experience
Insight
(UXI)
sensors
that
simulate
end-user
activities
with
admin-defined
frequency. -
Natural
language
search allows
administrators
to
use
natural
language
to
search
for
and
quickly
find
relevant
contextual
information,
enabling
rapid
first-level
triages
of
issues.
Benefit
3:
Reduced
cost
-
Unified
management of
wired,
wireless
and
WAN
networks
eliminates
the
use
of
multiple
management
tools,
additional
appliances
and
associated
administrative
and
licensing
costs. -
Training
and
development costs
are
reduced
as
network
teams
do
not
need
to
learn
different
tools
or
spend
cycles
on
patching
and
maintaining
the
solution -
Cost
of
Downtime and
truck
rolls
are
reduced
through
AI-based
proactive
identification
and
root-cause
of
issues
before
they
become
actual
problems
with
business
impact.
Benefit
4:
Minimized
riskÂ
-
AI-powered
IoT
visibility eliminates
network
blind
spots
and
reduces
the
risk
of
cyberattacks
by
using
ML-models
to
accurately
identify
and
profile
hard-to-detect
IoT
devices. -
Simplifies
policy
management and
streamlines
the
adoption
of
Zero
Trust
security
at
global
scale
by
using
overlays
based
on
widely
adopted
protocols
such
as
EVPN/VXLAN. -
High
availability with
live
firmware
upgrades
that
can
be
scheduled
during
non-peak
operation
hours
to
reduce
maintenance
windows
and
ensure
continuous
operations,
eliminating
potential
downtime.
Getting
started
with
cloud-based
network
management
120,000+
customers
worldwide
are
already
making
significant
improvements
to
their
network
management
and
operations
with
Aruba
Central.
In
a customer
survey
we
conducted
with
TechValidate,
nearly
a
third
of
Aruba
Central
customers
reported
that
they’ve halved their
previous
networking
costs and
nearly
two-thirds
of
surveyed
customers
are
able
to
resolve
network
or
user
issues
at
least 50%
faster.
Learn
how
you
can
modernize
your
network
and
evolve
network
management
strategies
with
the Aruba
Unified
Infrastructure and Aruba
Central.
References:
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