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There is a huge push in today’s business environment to increase productivity in the workplace by facilitating anywhere, anytime business applications, software as a service and cloud computing

Hybrid strategies that combine both private and public resources are proving to be more and more popular, although they rely heavily on a secure and agile network to perform optimally. A lot of businesses focus too much on the cloud solution whilst ignoring the importance of a secure network, putting the entire strategy at risk. Traditional, physical data networks are cumbersome, difficult to change and inferior to software-defined models which offer far greater flexibility, security and visibility into what is happening across the network.

Another benefit of software-defined networks is the ability for it to be overlaid on existing physical networking infrastructure, causing little interference with workflows and should encourage more businesses to begin their I.T. transformational journey.

Traditionally a complicated and involved process, optimising networks and prioritising applications through software-defined networking models are a lot easier to implement by simply choosing the required applications and letting the network take care of the rest.

As the network perimeter becomes blurred, software-defined networking can be applied to both local and wide area networks – helping eliminate the disconnect when working across public and private resources.

“One of the big mistakes that businesses can make is, once they start using the cloud, they take a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude to the rest of their networking infrastructure,” says Garth Sperring, Nexon’s Practice Lead for network and security. “Local and wide area network performance is still key to business productivity, along with the smooth flow of traffic between your public and private networks.”

With the NBN rollout just around the corner, prioritising applications is set to become a challenge for a wide range of businesses across Australia. It’s not just about broadband speeds, but the security and integration of their existing network. Voice and data are no longer separate, so businesses need to take a look at their strategy from a broader view.

Navigating a myriad of networking solutions can be daunting. Identifying the right solution partners is crucial to ensure you make the most of your investment. SD-WAN technology, like Cisco, provides a great solution to connect users and applications with anywhere, anytime access.

Read the original article on the Australian Financial Review

To see how can assist your business with moving to the cloud, get in touch with us via enquiries@nexon.com.au.