Whether it’s a delay on the first leg of a layover, a dropped pass in the end zone with time running out, or a left swipe you can’t undo, nobody likes when a connection fails.
That’s especially true for organizations that have moved their computing to the cloud. A study by Netwrix determined that, on average, companies have 41% of their workloads in the cloud and plan to have 54% in the cloud by the end of 2023. What’s more, Flexera showed in its latest State of the Cloud report that 89% of businesses who use cloud storage embrace a multi-cloud strategy, and 80% of those organizations take a hybrid approach and combine public and private providers.
As the pivot toward cloud computing continues to take hold, many businesses unintentionally overcomplicate their connectivity. They try to get high-speed, point-to-point circuits into their facilities, which is quickly becoming an old way of thinking. They also underrate their connections’ reliability, underestimate the bandwidth they require, and overlook the need for security in an evolving remote-work environment.
Complexity in cloud connectivity comes from the combination of technology solutions and the number of providers needed to get to the cloud venue, especially from a remote location. Yet, simplifying it is much easier than you think — and can save you time, money, and headaches now and down the line.
Emerging technology guides change in connectivity
Anyone who tried to join a Zoom meeting at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic while their spouse led a virtual presentation and their children attended class remotely learned a complicated lesson: Bandwidth isn’t infinite. That connectivity logjam isn’t just limited to the household, as local network infrastructure also faces a massive strain with more people logging on from home.
Some can find it difficult to connect to networks at the bandwidth they require. The federal government has put $65 billion of the landmark $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed in November 2021 toward improving and expanding high-speed internet access nationwide. Similarly, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Program has invested more than $1 billion to increase high-speed broadband infrastructure in rural areas and on tribal lands since it began in 2018.
Unstable connections can affect all employees — not just those working remotely. One solution you can use is a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), which can be used to strengthen, accelerate, and secure connections to multiple clouds, including those hosting important data, email servers, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. But not everyone has learned about SD-WAN’s benefits. And if they have, they may not have the ability or resources to manage that type of network.
Anyone who wants to make that pivot can also find challenges in the infrastructure. You should have your circuitry and hardware in place before SD-WAN can be overlaid. Once it is, you must configure your connectivity and your cloud so they can talk to what you have on premises. If that’s not done properly, outages can pop up and any traffic routed over the internet won’t be secure.
Forty-one percent of respondents to the Netwrix study said their biggest obstacle in turning to the cloud was integrating their existing IT environment, and 48% of those surveyed by Flexera said assessing the technical feasibility of migration to the cloud is a top challenge. As technology evolves and computing power shifts, however, you don’t want to be left behind.
Comprehensive solutions are secure, reliable — and easily obtainable
At 11:11 Systems, we make what others find complicated easy.
We use technologies like SD-WAN to take low-cost, high-speed circuits and bind them together, then simplify your connection back to the cloud by adding a dedicated, easy-to-use management layer. That overlay enhances connectivity and prevents you from buying high-speed, direct bandwidth in different cloud venues. We also keep an eye on security throughout the whole process, ensuring the connectivity you’re putting in place adheres to existing and emerging compliance requirements.
We understand the complexity and the risks involved with doing this on your own. You tell us which applications are important and which need reliable connectivity, and from there, we’ll build a low-cost solution so you can access your cloud from your on-prem environment — no matter where you are.
We also provide local internet access at each location, so if you have multiple facilities and need to access a SaaS application, we can use secure, local bandwidth rather than routing you through a centralized point. We do that by working with multiple telecommunications carriers and by consolidating several vendors, so you have just one hand to shake going forward.
Our solutions go beyond implementation, too. We don’t just look at how you’re trying to connect to the cloud. We look at your security stature and the other prevalent risk factors companies experience, such as disaster recovery (DR) and resource management. We also manage your services on a 24/7 basis, because we recognize crashes don’t just happen from 9 to 5.
These are things every CIO, from the largest company to the smallest, must have on their radar. They may not think about connectivity before workloads move to the cloud, but they will when data starts moving.
The way we see it, every missed connection is a missed opportunity, regardless of scale. At 11:11 Systems, a trusted partner in the cloud, connectivity, and security, we’ll make sure you’re always in the right place at the right time.
