The Future of Networking

FountainBlue’s December 7 VIP roundtable was on the topic of ‘The Future of Networking’. Thank you also to our gracious hosts at Vonzos Partners. Below are notes from the conversation. 

We were fortunate to have a wide range of perspectives around the table, with executives representing different industries – from aerospace to manufacturing, from semiconductors to utilities, from healthcare to telecommunications. Yet they shared a common perspectives on the future of networking.

The foundational infrastructure has been set up which makes it easier for people across companies, industries and locations to connect with each other. From this foundation, we are all collectively building increasingly more impactful solutions for larger customer bases, while also providing more customized solutions for individual people. This leads to many inter-related factors including:

• huge volumes of data which just keep growing
• a broader range of applications to support a broader range of problems
• a re-purpose of technologies from one solution to another, from one market or industry into another
• the burdens and risks to the networks with the increasingly rapid evolution and adoption of hardware and software
• the empowerment of the consumers, who are applying immense pressure to companies and their networks

Below is cumulative advice for proactively managing networks:

• Budget time and resources to proactively integrate solutions across users and platforms. Solutions in the future will not be running on silos.
• Assume that there will be a huge and ongoing need to dynamically balance privacy, security and access.
• Analyze and triage individual devices and solutions which may impact others within the network. Isolate contaminants and manage the spread into the internal network.
• Proactively collect, store, manage, communicate the data and its implications to the network, users, customers. 

• Embrace a safety mindset, managing and minimizing disruption, while also being open to opportunities.

• Connect your silos of people and teams and help them help each other manage the network.

• Whether you’re representing yourself or your organization, remember that your data is important and valuable. Selling your personal data, especially your personal health data or even your social media data, may tell the buyer much more about yourself than you know…

This also leads to many opportunities as well:

• Data is everywhere and growing rapidly. There are tremendous opportunities for companies who can leverage and filter the data real-time for constructive benefits.
• Design solutions which manage and contain security breaches across complex and integrated systems to minimize impact.
• Optimize the capacity of networks so they can proactively manage upgrades (no run-to-failure decisions).
• Providing AI/ML/predictive analytics on IT and networks to quickly detect anomalies and take measured actions based on patterns
• Adopt solutions which may be able to optimize and report on its own health and do self-diagnosis.
• Consider integrating open source solutions into your networking hardware and software adoption plans.
• There are immense opportunities around IoT, IIot (Industrial IoT), 5G, Cloud/Fog/Edge computing, Video capture/manage/sharing, Autonomous driving.

The bottom line is that the future of networking involves people. 

• Factor in how a network strategy will impact people and cultures so plan your strategy for the audience you’re serving – your customers, your employees, your industry.
• Educate your people on how the network impacts them, and how their decisions may impact the network. 

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