Today’s advanced applications and data-intensive workloads demand optimal performance. Big data workloads impact the bottom line. Statista predicts that global big data revenue will reach $24 billion by 2021.
Extracting value from huge volumes of information is impossible without using advanced analytics applications to mine data for insights. Cognitive analytics applications, which use machine learning to interpret unstructured data, demand the highest levels of performance on a fast, low-latency network.
A high-performance network is also critically important to companies dependent on e-commerce or digital transactions. If potential customers experience bottlenecks when trying to purchase products or services, they may abandon the transaction. More than ever, the quality of a network can make or break an e-retailer.
The network, the cloud, and the right management approach are the keys to reaching the highest level of technology performance.
Here’s a look at 3 things organizations need to do to reach optimal performance levels:
1) Use a network with low latency and fast throughput.
A company’s network should be optimized everywhere possible, including the WAN / Internet connection. Far too often, organizations assume all service provider networks are the same and bandwidth is simply a commodity. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When network traffic slows down, it can have a devastating effect on communications. VoIP users on a high-latency network experience jitter and packet loss. Video conferencing and real time communication becomes insufferable because of static, echoing and blackouts.
Organizations can reduce latency by working with a network provider that offers the right amount of bandwidth along with a high-speed network that delivers high throughput rates backed by a service level agreement (SLA) that has a guarantee for network performance and not just availability.
2) Work with a managed service provider to optimize and manage networks more efficiently with up-to-date routers and firewalls.
The right hardware is necessary to reach optimal network performance levels but the management of those devices is just as important. Far too often, organizations install the right solution but over time because of a lack of resources and expertise they leave that network neglected and unsastisfactory.
In today’s threat landscape, next generation firewalls are necessary to guard against data breaches. The 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study found that 47% of breaches result from criminal activity rather than system failure or employee error.
Protecting and managing a network can be overwhelming for your core IT staff. Working with a managed provider augments your staff and ensures that you have the right hardware and ongoing optimization / management to reach desired levels of performance and security.
3) Move to the cloud to gain application performance power.
The cloud provides an affordable and scalable way to acquire the computing resources needed for workloads that are input/output- intensive. When more storage and processing power is needed, companies can scale on demand and pay only for what they need.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides a perfect environment to run your high-performance applications. For many organizations, IaaS represents a “just right” approach to moving to the cloud. The service provider takes the burden of keeping the infrastructure updated and the customer is still able to retain control of his or her applications and data. That’s a true win-win for busy IT teams.
When the cloud is supported by a provider that owns the network, organizations minimize latency and connect to their cloud workloads at the lowest possible latency.
Performance Leads to Productivity
To stay competitive, companies need a productive workforce that can get more work done, faster. This means that technology has to perform at its best for those productivity gains to be realized. If you’re not paying attention to how your technology performs, you might not be giving your teams everything they need to succeed.
FirstLight has all the resources companies in the Northeast need to reach their full performance potential. We have built an extensive fiber optic network in the region. Our network delivers dedicated bandwidth with up to 100 Gbps capacity.
FirstLight also has a comprehensive suite of solutions including cloud services that are designed for high performance. We have recently added managed edge security and routing to our list of network offerings, ensuring that our customers have the right network and security solutions to meet their requirements as their organizations change and grow.
Harness the resources your business needs to achieve optimum performance. Download FirstLight’s Managed Edge product sheet for more info.
