Executive Thought Leadership

Network as the Platform

Using the Network to Integrate Business Strategies, Processes, and Goals

Technology has changed the entire business landscape. Powerful networking applications and vast data storage capabilities enable corporate users to access critical information in seconds rather than hours. Converged network infrastructures allow colleagues and customers to securely share data, voice, and video in real-time. Mobile communication tools and remote network access technology enables workers to stay in contact—and in the loop—wherever they are in the world.

Because these technologies have become fairly ubiquitous, they've done more than shift the way companies, customers, and partners interact; they've also completely altered traditional notions of competitive advantage. Technology has leveled the metaphoric playing field. Today, competition is no longer between people, products, or companies; it is now between strategies and processes. Those businesses that can respond quickly to change—by shifting their strategies, implementing new processes, etc.— are far more likely to succeed than those that cannot. In other words, agility equals success.

But agility can be a challenge for today's business leaders. Although technology and software advances in the past 20 years have transformed computers from mechanisms for conducting basic transactions to valuable tools for enabling complex communications, networks themselves have traditionally not been built for flexibility and interconnectedness. Given that it takes 18-24 months, on average, for IT departments to implement change in the network architecture—by which time there are already new changes looming on the horizon—how can a business react quickly and strategically to improve critical processes, bring new products to market, inspire growth, and beat the competition? Clearly, a paradigm shift is necessary.

The Network as Platform

Today's companies can no longer use the network simply as a conduit for moving information. To succeed in a world in which information has become the center of all economic activity, companies must use the network as a platform for integrating key business strategies, processes, and goals.

What makes the network a platform is the combination of the open, standards-based nature of the infrastructure, the pervasiveness of wired and wireless connectivity options, and the large number of compatible end devices, applications and features available. Through these elements, the network has emerged as more than a medium for simple connectivity–it has emerged as a flexible, secure platform for the delivery of intelligent services. Some of these services, such as security and application virtualization, can exist in the network itself. Others are enhanced by the increasing level of intelligence imbued in the network infrastructure.

But is it really necessary for the network to be intelligent? In a word: yes. Consider one of the most critical of network services: security. In traditional infrastructures, the network isn't application-aware and the applications aren't network-aware, and so the network does not usually understand how to stop a hacker from accessing applications or performing unauthorized activities. These tasks must be performed manually. But in an intelligent network infrastructure, the common network security services are able to understand one another. If a hacker tries to access the system, network security and application security automatically communicate and work together to prevent that access—sometimes before the IT staff is aware that an issue exists. This is the network platform at work.

Now consider the network architecture itself. When the network is used as a conduit, the technology architecture is often inflexible and is treated as separate and distinct from the business architecture. As a result, it is not uncommon for companies to experience implementation delays, miscommunications, and other costly and time-consuming difficulties that can affect customers, partners, and employees. But when the network is used as a platform, the technology architecture is flexible enough to support the business architecture and reflect the strategy of the organization. The technology architecture functions as the backplane for a physical network infrastructure that allows disparate resources such as servers, storage, applications, desktops, and wireless devices to be quickly and easily plugged into the system. The relative ease of integration allows these resources to communicate and collaborate much more securely and manageably than they do on traditional, rigid network infrastructures. The flexibility of the technology architecture also allows new processes and applications to be created and integrated as necessary—and it ensures that those applications can scale to meet future business requirements.

Using the network as a platform, customers can access real-time information whenever, wherever they want; employees can use information more effectively, improving their ability to collaborate with colleagues and communicate with customers; network administrators have greater control over the system because the system itself is less complex—and more efficient—than traditional network infrastructures; and business leaders have the flexibility and scalability they need to make strategic changes now, rather than 18-24 months from now. Furthermore, when such changes are necessary, the backplane is upgraded rather than replaced, which protects the original investment and provides a greater return on future investments.

Now that the advantages of this paradigm shift (from conduit to platform) are clear, the next logical question becomes "how". There are essentially three elements that, together, form a solid foundation for the network as a platform: a secure, converged network infrastructure, network services, and unified communications.

Building a Secure, Converged Network Infrastructure

For many years, network infrastructures were the realm of data. As voice and video entered the mainstream, new infrastructures were created to handle the voice and video applications—but those infrastructures were not integrated with the original data networks. As a result, many companies now have multiple communication networks, each entirely separate, each servicing a specific application. Quite often, this creates situations in which a solution that is designed to resolve one issue actually ends up creating another. For example, if a new application on the data network does not function smoothly with existing applications on the voice and video networks, then companies must spend a great deal of time and money to discover the source of the problem and then resolve it on each network via expensive and complex links between proprietary systems.

The converged network infrastructure, by contrast, enables all data, voice, and video applications to be integrated onto a single, secure IP network. New applications work reliably with existing applications because they are all based on the same protocol. Solutions can be tailored to accommodate varying security requirements, communications parameters, and other corporate needs and goals. And specific features that were unavailable or extremely expensive with traditional systems, such as integrated conferencing applications that enable more effective communication and collaboration, can be deployed relatively quickly and easily.

Some of the benefits of having a secure, converged network infrastructure are clear: lower cost of ownership, improved employee productivity, streamlined processes, reduced operating expenses, improved adaptability and scalability, and increased agility. Convergence is only the first step towards achieving the network as the platform, but it is an important stepping stone, providing operational and total cost of ownership benefits – and enabling the organization to react swiftly and strategically to beat the competition.

Adding Network Services

Network services are at the core of realizing the network as a platform. Services deliver the intelligence that allows the network to function as a platform and, because network services are available to support all network applications, they offer a number of benefits:

• Ability to reuse services to support business process; for example, a single presence service allows every application to tailor delivery to the users current device, location and bandwidth.
• Reduced complexity in developing systems, which lowers risk and speeds time to market; for example, network services such as virus detection are available to every application – without necessarily requiring that the application do anything to access the services.
• Faster implementation of business solutions; for example, organizations can spend more effort on customer business services rather than on developing infrastructure services such as managing identity information.
• Ability to prepare the network for next-generation interactions; for example, organizations can integrate real time collaborative tools into a customer order processing system to provide a high touch experience.

Incorporating Unified Communications

Once services have added intelligence to the secure, converged network, the third and final step to making the network a platform is to incorporate unified communications.

Unlike traditional network infrastructures, which require the use of separate communication devices and applications for data, voice, and video, an intelligent network supports all communication channels—and their unique architectures—on the same system. This allows users to take advantage of real-time, media-rich communications which, in turn, makes it possible for companies to focus their efforts on interactions rather than transactions.

Consider a scenario in which a customer calls a traveling sales representative with an urgent request for information. In the past, the sales rep would have hung up with the customer, phoned the office, asked an assistant to search for the information, and then placed a return call to the customer in the hopes that the customer would not be dissatisfied with the amount of time required to get the information.

Now consider the same scenario with unified communications. The customer calls the sales representative, who uses her PDA to remotely access her files at the office, and she instantly gives the customer the necessary information. No return phone call. No delay. No "hoping" that the information is immediately available.

In this way, unified communications eliminates the barriers of mobility, distance, and platform, turning a series of transactions into a single, effective interaction. Communication is streamlined. Users are able to reach the resources they need the first time. People are connected to people instead of devices. And users can leverage the reach and intelligence of the network to deliver the information that is needed, at any time, from anywhere.

Keys to Success

A network platform that enables convergence, leverages network services, incorporates unified communications, and supports collaboration will put the organization into a solid position to respond quickly to new business needs. More importantly, it will also allow the organization to enable new and innovative business processes that are a source of new value.

Transforming the network from conduit to platform will be a lengthy and complicated process. However, there are several things that organizations can do today to help ensure their future success:

• Develop a strategy and roadmap that is specific to your organization. As part of this process, be sure to consider key business strategies, processes, and goals – and how you would like them to be integrated with each other.
• Ensure that your organization's strategy and roadmap incorporates the network lifecycle of prepare, plan, design, implement operate, and optimize. Also, at each stage of the lifecycle, focus on the specific methodologies and practices that are needed to support the evolution of a traditional network to an intelligent business system.
• Include ongoing program management throughout the network lifecycle to help drive the adoption and execution of the solution, measure its impact, and enable all parties to remain focused on current and future needs and goals.
• Ensure that the platform has a good balance of openness, extensibility, and availability. A healthy network platform will offer benefits to its three main constituencies: the vendors that provide the important central technologies (innovation, flexibility, productivity); the customers that derive utility from the platform (value, leadership, loyalty); and other organizations that provide the added value (access to a larger market, credibility, growth potential).
• And, finally, consider partnering with a company that has expertise in this kind of network project. Cisco Systems, for example, has a great deal of experience and expertise in helping organizations prepare for, plan, and design an architectural strategy for building a secure converged network infrastructure, adding network services, and incorporating unified communications. Cisco also offers mentoring and hands-on support for the successful implementation, operation, and optimization of network solutions.

Summary

The network platform is the cornerstone of an agile system that can integrate business strategies, processes, and goals – and provide organizations with the competitive advantage they need to succeed.