Tomorrow's Network Today

The corporate network isn't the first consideration when business leaders are looking to identify the impact of new IT services that can improve business competitiveness or save the company money.

When considering the move to cloud computing, for example, businesses will first consider the potential benefits of increased flexibility and efficiency and reduced cost. But the impact of cloud computing on the network can be substantial, and it is unwise to overlook the consequences.

Similarly, the use of video in large enterprises is rising sharply as companies look to save travel time and money with telepresence and desktop collaboration tools, but the use of such tools can have an impact on network performance if their implementation is not managed.

Meanwhile, the use of virtualisation technologies has seen an upturn. Enterprise virtualisation software wasn't widely used prior to the 2008 economic dip but this year most businesses are trialling virtualisation projects or rolling them out enterprise-wide.

With businesses getting excited about the possibility of video on the network, cloud computing and virtualisation, it's time to consider the impact that these trends will have on the network.

In our guide to tomorrow's network today we take a look at each of these issues and consider how businesses can take advantage of new technologies without slowing the network to a halt.