Security First

Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated and increasing in volume. In addition, remote working or working across multiple sites and multiple devices, together with an increasing reliance on cloud-based applications, have all served to weaken traditional perimeter-based security.

Traditional firewall technology is no longer enough. Anyone designing or planning a new network deployment in 2018 must adopt a ‘Security First’ mantra, with security being embedded into the network elements and design.

When a network has security inherently built into it, operates alongside other security platforms, and is managed with consistent, properly enforced policies, it becomes the security defence.

Video demands bandwidth

Organisations are embracing the web, video conferencing, and unified communication and collaboration tools to improve productivity among employees. This means enterprises will need to ensure they are building networks with enough capacity to support these new applications.

Bandwidth requirements will continue to increase in 2018, driven by the adoption of advanced video collaboration and applications in the enterprise.

SD-WAN comes of age

Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) will finally come of age in 2018, with SD-WAN adoption gathering pace in the enterprise.

The burgeoning technology has shown remarkable growth in recent years with IDC predicting the SD-WAN market will be worth US$8billion by 2021. It has driven digital transformation projects that deploy the cloud, big data, analytics, and mobility – which all increase network workloads and require end-to-end reliability.

NPM and APM growth

The workforce today is mobile, often working across numerous devices, from any location. Employees commonly use applications hosted in the cloud. They expect ongoing availability of whatever network they are connected to. Network management, therefore, can be complex, with the need to manage application and network performance more important than ever.

Network Performance Management (NPM) and Application Performance Management (APM) will become the norm for enterprises in 2018, with a focus on user experience, resolving application and network performance issues proactively and quickly, and improving productivity.

WLAN upgrades

WLAN deployment upgrades will grow faster than ever in 2018, driven by the rapid speeds of 802.11AC and the fast-evolving analytics engines and applications that provide insight and intelligence to end users and devices

In addition, the explosion in Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints will also fuel the growth of WLAN technology. It is estimated there will be 20.4 billion connected things in use worldwide by 2020, and analysts at Dell’Oro predict that there will be an installed base of nearly a billion WLAN network devices within five years, which will be the primary way that most IoT devices connect to networks.

Written from press release by Leah Alger

The post Nuvias: Top 5 networking trends for 2018 appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

The rise of AI

2018 will see artificial intelligence (AI) drive a transformational change among organisations and impact on cloud use.

ICT isn’t getting any simpler, and businesses are being forced to move faster as their customers’ requirements become more demanding. This is driving innovation in areas like AI, but automation of past processes won’t be enough to keep up with the “need for speed” in business agility.

We will see lots more AI projects and initiatives in 2018; it will be the cornerstone of change in automation of ICT. Proactive, automated, non-human decisions are now a necessity. Are the robots coming? Yes, they are – but we still need to develop the Intellectual Property (IP) to drive them.

IP will be key

With emerging technologies like AI becoming more prominent in 2018, organisations are demanding bespoke software and solutions that solve their specific business problems.

As a result, companies are increasingly working with cloud service providers to gain a competitive advantage – this includes using public cloud providers to power their IP-centric solutions. Investment in infrastructure development is diminishing, replaced by a need for specific business-driven solutions that require unique software to bring these solutions to life.

From partnering to strategic alliances

IP is the key, but many end users don’t have the time, resources or in-house skills to create their own unique solution that gives them the business advantage they require.

As such, they are forging long-term business relationships with technology service providers who understand their need for change, and develop specific IP or software which utilises public cloud services, embraces AI, and most importantly which solves a business or specific customer problem.

Public cloud providers also need these strategic partner alliances to ensure there is a shorter time to value in moving workloads to the cloud, and providing solutions that move beyond Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) to fully utilising Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

PaaS as the basis for digital transformation

We are starting to see the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) players now extending into PaaS in response to customer demand.

Customers that are using a SaaS kingpin like CRM want to extend that platform into other use cases and requirements. It’s been a long time coming but as the world moves to a cloud-first strategy, the complexity in integrated public clouds is driving companies to explore PaaS.

Secure cloud services get board visibility

Cloud services have been a safe bet in the Boardroom in recent years, but now the question is, are they truly secure? Decisions to utilise cloud services have been a relatively easy Boardroom decision, due to their known cost and agility. But with more and more high-profile data breaches, questions are now being asked around cloud security at a Board level within businesses.

The damaging nature of cyber attacks is now clearly in the line of sight of Board members. GDPR will also raise more questions at this level, making cyber security in the cloud a Board level priority.

Written from press release by Leah Alger

The post 2018: Top 5 cloud services predictions appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

Representing a commitment by Nuvias to accelerate the growth of its DevOps business, the new partnership is to expand Github’s enterprise customer base across the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The software development platform is a web-based Git version control tool and repository for code development, providing access control and collaboration features such as feature requests, bug tracking, wikis and task management.

Paul Eccleston, CEO of Nuvias Group, said: “Software and applications are now the heart of business and the basis for digital transformation, innovation and efficiency.

“With businesses needing to deliver quality applications quickly so they can compete and gain market share, GitHub will be at the centre of our portfolio of integrated tools and services to enable collaborative development, quality, security, automation and user-experience monitoring.”

From start-ups to global teams of thousands, development teams can harness the GitHub platform to discover, use and contribute to projects more effectively, regardless of organisation or geography.

Catherine King, channel manager at GitHub, added: “GitHub Business allows companies large and small to collaborate on important projects more effectively, improving productivity within their development teams.

“With Nuvias’ focus on accelerating its DevOps business, this partnership will help more companies across the globe get the most from their GitHub deployments, whether they choose the hosted option or on-premise.”

Eccleston also noted GitHub allows companies to multiply forces and employ 1000s of developers on improving and optimising code.

Written from press release by Leah Alger

The post GitHub signs pan-EMEA agreement with Nuvias appeared first on DevOps Online North America.