Migrating Infrastructure to Enable the Office of the Future

Author: Damian Alfonso, Solutions Architect, CDW Canada

The global pandemic is challenging the way welive, learn and even the way we socialize with friends and family. Before thepandemic, organizations were dealing with the decentralization of data, whereit could be stored on-premises or in the cloud. This led to hybridinfrastructures where the data centre was no longer a single location,rather distributed infrastructure where the data resided. In our currentenvironment, work is no longer a place, forcing organizations to acceleratetheir digital workforce transformation strategies.

As organizations and networks grow,troubleshooting has become more difficult. Network engineers are often runningbehind on their deliverables and spend most of their time and effortschasingand fixing problems, while also performing manualoperation tasks. Regardless of the amount and calibre of work put in, acommon user criticism is about poor application performance. This has beena reality for many of us for a long time.

The uprising of wide-area networks(WAN)

With physical distancing measures shifting andorganizations weighing what their future office will look like, it's imperativethat networks can withstand and support whatever the end result is. With ahybrid office environment presenting as a likely avenue for many organizations movingforward, the extension of the office network beyond the physical walls needs tohave seamless performance and security to ensure organizational success.

Software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN)have evolved as a natural application of the SDN approach to change the waycompanies manage their WAN infrastructure. With SD-WAN, companies can nowaggregate all their transport networks and branch offices into a holisticsystem rather than managing individual locations, links and devices. Bymigrating to SD-WAN, companies will be able to use any transport method moresecurely and reliably with increased efficacy of the available bandwidth, whichimproves user experience. Many organizations have also recognized additionalbenefits this introduces, such as cost efficiencies.

To ensure your organization's data remainsprivate, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is an emerging architecture lookinginto the best ways to deliver this integration between cloud-managed SD-WAN andcloud-delivered security as an enabler for digital business transformation. SASEcan help organizations to reduce complexity, improve speed and agility whileenabling multi-cloud networking through a more secure SD-WAN infrastructure.

Improving your network's capabilitieswith Cisco and CDW

At CDW, we offer the best-in-class services and solutions to help our customers through every step of their SD-WAN migration and digital transformation needs. We recently achieved the Cisco Master Networking Specialization a key differentiator in the Canadian market. This gives us the highest capabilities in Cisco networking technologies that support intent-based networking, business processes and results. As a leading Canadian services provider, our deep expertise and vast understanding of the unique challenges that Canadian organizations face in this new phase of planning for a safe and efficient return to work, allow us to tailor our solutions specifically to you and your business. We can design innovative solutions from the ground up based on your specific business objectives.

If you're interested in learning more about how you can make your current wireless network work better for you, visit cdw.ca/cisco or call 888.439.2392.