On predicting challenges in the cloud
Taking a broad view across the enterprise, cloud computing deployments are still young and many enterprises are just taking the first steps. As enterprises become more reliant on cloud, the complexity of these deployments will deepen – involving many virtual private clouds, interconnections and segmentation between components, and hybrid cloud connecting on-premises and multiple public cloud deployments. According to a recent prediction from IDC, “over 90% of enterprises will use multiple cloud services and platforms” by 2020. Integrating business-critical legacy applications which weren’t designed as pure cloud apps will bring additional considerations.
But today, most cloud ops solutions and teams are only equipped for simpler environments. As complexity grows, executing on a cloud strategy reliably and securely will require new automation, analytics, and, perhaps most importantly, team expertise spanning networking and cloud platforms.
On intent-based networking (as a potential solution):
A year ago, we predicted a rise in automated systems that will start down the path to intent-based networking (IBN). In 2018, we saw multiple large networking vendors and cloud providers introduce IBN capabilities spanning control and intent verification for network infrastructure, and startups in the space continued to deploy solutions in enterprises that are taking the early lead in improving the uptime, security, and agility of their networks. We note that the point of IBN is the intent – that is, the requirements of the business and the network. As a result, IBN is most powerful when it understands and is integrated with the surrounding IT ecosystem.
In the next year, watch for these deployments to expand and begin to mature, with an increasing integration of IBN solutions with multiple components in the enterprise and IT workflows.
