Analyst View
CDNs: Networkin' Wonders
Today's companies are asking a lot from IT. According to a recent survey of 250 North American senior IT decision makers, commissioned by AT&T and conducted by Forrester Consulting, the top three IT priorities for 2009 are controlling costs, enhancing customer experience and improving business responsiveness. IT is now providing significant contributions to the top and bottom lines.
For the next five years, IT will be focused on enabling digital business by providing consumers - both employees and customers alike - with access to any application or content from anywhere. The good news is that top IT initiatives are well-aligned with this objective. In the same survey, senior technology decision makers cited the top three IT projects as: 1) upgrading disaster recovery capabilities, which is necessary for responsiveness; 2) replacing or upgrading applications, which helps with customer experience; and 3) consolidating infrastructure, which is the ultimate cure for escalating IT costs.
Three Network Imperatives You Need to Execute to Remain Aligned
So far, so good! IT managers are citing technology projects that are well-aligned with their priorities, which in turn are well-aligned with business objectives. But there's a catch: Not all aspects of the IT infrastructure are up to the challenge of supporting the next generation of applications and content. In today's environment, performance, scalability, reliability and security concerns often prevent the business from getting to its apps and content. The survey conducted by Forrester Consulting found that the network in particular is considered one of the most critical linchpins, with 59% of IT managers citing it as critically important - a good 15% or more higher than sibling infrastructure elements like servers, middleware, storage and PCs. But anyone who has run a large network knows it doesn't always receive the necessary level of investment to support this increasing business burden. So how do you get ahead of this problem? By embracing three key network imperatives:
Imperative 1: Make the Network a Strategic Asset
The network isn't just plumbing. It's a critical part of the fabric that connects increasingly distributed users and customers to increasingly dynamic applications and content. In fact, most companies surveyed agreed, with a resounding 90% of respondents claiming the network is already a strategic asset. This is a critical first step in aligning IT initiatives with the business. Leveraging intelligence in the network provides the architectural foundation for deploying the right applications and content at the right speed, scale and reliability. If you agree, excellent; it's time to move on to the second imperative.
Imperative 2: Move Beyond Basic Network Hardware
The network provides the intelligent foundation to deliver your apps and content. But what provides the most bang for the buck? The answer is not just upgrading routers, switches and appliances. The second critical imperative is to break out of the status quo of simply upgrading hardware every three to five years. Throwing more iron at the problem will not support the next generation of business requirements. Unfortunately, here's where you're most likely to come up short. According to the survey, the vast majority of organizations are stuck in a rut, with 82% looking to hardware to solve content and application performance issues. Do not despair if you're in the same situation - you have good company! The key is to join the 29% of organizations that are already embracing managed and cloud-based services that provide the necessary content and application intelligence closer to your employees and customers. Why get stuck managing equipment when the network can provide the necessary intelligence to scale your business?
Imperative 3: Look to CDNs to Bridge the Digital Business Divide
Finally, looking beyond just basic hardware means reexamining today's application and content delivery networks. But take note: This isn't your father's CDN. Modern CDNs aren't just for eCommerce sites; they also extend dynamic content for business applications, virtual infrastructure, gaming, rich media and Web 2.0 services. The result is not only streamlining the top technology initiatives, but proactively aligning IT with the business. In fact, more than three-quarters of respondents cited CDN technologies as a driver for proactively solving business issues. This results in:
- Better cost control: CDNs mean you don't spend millions of dollars managing equipment, but rather focus on service levels and extending business value directly to your customers.
- Enhanced customer experience: Putting your apps and content in the cloud means pushing it as close to your customers as possible. The result is improved performance and customer satisfaction.
- Improved business responsiveness: CDNs have an obvious performance gain when the content is just milliseconds away from the user, but also mean your staff is spending less time on infrastructure upgrades and more time on managing your digital business.
Learn more about content delivery networks at att.com/voicesandviews.
