How you think about your next-generation network infrastructure? Is it simple to deploy and scale? Does it provide clear migration paths that don't require high-impact upgrades and nightly data center work? Can it provide the flexibility to support applications in both on-premises and cloud environments?
One way to help define what you need in your infrastructure is to analyze how it will actually work in your environment - from architecture design to deployment and operations.
Let's look at the main factors to consider at each stage of the process.
IT architecture design
This is the time for careful and strategic analysis what you need today and speculate as best you can on what you will need in the coming years.
It can be challenging because the pace of innovation has accelerated rapidly with the growth of the cloud and the expansion of technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, which often come from the business side as initiatives with an accelerated timeline.
However, the rapid pace of innovation is here to stay, so in your architecture analysis, you should make sure that your infrastructure offers the capacity to easily incorporate innovation without major impacts on the current technology architecture and to deploy the best products when they become available.
Part of this is to ensure that you can modernize without having to undergo a major upgrade every few years.
Looking at it another way, what happens if your technology architecture design planning goes wrong due to items beyond your control? What if the company tells you to double capacity next year compared to three years ago? Will that be painful?
The main consideration at this stage is architecture. In today's environment, you want simplicity, flexibility, scalability and easy access to innovation. This requires a central alignment built around the business, which will give you maximum flexibility, where you can pay as you grow.
Whichever solution you choose must be simple to deploy - virtually out of the box - and simple to operate, with centralized management that takes advantage of high levels of automation and analysis.
Implementation
With the right planning, you have chosen an architectural model that will take you into the future and provide a simple path for upgrades and innovation.
Reference architectures, converged infrastructures and hyperconverged infrastructures are designed to make it easier for IT teams to deploy solutions faster and more efficiently than traditional architecture stacks that separate the management of computing, storage and network resources.
You want the best of each of these models, without any trade-offs.
At this stage, you want to get your applications up and running quickly and efficiently, without downtime and with the performance and capacity required for each workload. The main features to look for include:
- Validated reference architectures that are documented and tested for a wide range of application-centric projects.
- Fast and reliable implementation using high levels of automation, analysis and API-based integration with external systems from cloud providers and other potential partners.
- An architectural design that offers disaggregated flexibility for easy expansion, giving you the ability to scale and grow based on the needs of your workloads and applications, not the design of your infrastructure.
What's interesting here is the "Implementation Tax". It is not only paid on the first day, but also on day 180 and day 365, i.e. any time you architect or expand a system.
Masking complex implementations is an approach that will slow down innovation and add ongoing costs over time.
Operations
This is the phase that is focused on operations or "Business as Usual". For most business executives, they wish they didn't even think about this moment - they literally hire people to take care of everything at this stage.
Executives notice problems in the operations phase for two main reasons: instability and inability to innovate.
If a critical service goes offline, the organization notices - and not in the best way. If an infrastructure requires so much day-to-day "care" that there is no budget or time for innovation, IT becomes known as the "problem department".
For the operations phase, the main factors include:
- A single-pane-of-glass management platform.
- Automated processes for day-to-day management and scaling.
- There is no need for high-impact, costly upgrades.
- Architectural design around performance and reliability.
- A single source of customer support.
- Flexible deployment options, including reference architectures, managed services options and loosely coupled infrastructure for independent scaling.
What you don't want at this stage is an infrastructure that forces you to make high-impact upgrades. Otherwise, you'll be constantly going back to the initial stages of this process and repeating the cycle indefinitely.
The investment you make now should last a long time as the basis for your local infrastructure.
Today's infrastructure must be the foundation of your future
You should think beyond the initial implementation and make sure you have an architecture model that is easy to deploy, manage and scale, with minimal restrictions on when and how to upgrade and modernize.
Starting with an architecture in the design phase is key, but it's also important to look at the other factors discussed in this article, including automation, centralized management, simplified updates and reliable, consistent support from your easily accessible providers.
Contact our experts now and find out about Aruba Networks' security, network management and connectivity solutions. We're here to help you overcome this challenge.
About Conversys
Conversys IT Solutions is a provider of Information and Communication Technology services and solutions operating throughout Brazil.
With a highly qualified technical and commercial team and a network of partners that includes the main global technology manufacturers, Conversys IT Solutions is able to deliver customized IT and Telecom Infrastructure solutions to clients.
We invest in our employees and partners and strive for a long-lasting relationship with our clients, because we believe that this is how we gain the skills and knowledge we need to innovate and generate value for the businesses in which we operate.
