No one would be surprised to hear that business and IT teams are talking about big data:
- How to support access to the granular details that comes from big data and how to use it to influence buying decisions
- How to generate enhanced market insights and identify actionable customer feedback
Knowing this information undoubtedly offers great value to organizations.
Investment in big data has exploded and 89 percent of business leaders believe big data will revolutionize business operations in the same way the Internet did. But, how many are in a position to take advantage? Forward thinking IT departments are already turning big data on its head and looking inwards – using big data to help run the network itself.
#Network – what's trending?
Hindsight is easy. By digging in and seeing established patterns of routine traffic from applications, bottlenecks and anomalies hindering the network you can identify and gain foresight into how the roll out of new features or services will affect your network. Put simply, the ability to detect what is trending – be it backup activities, heavy bandwidth usage or popular application deployment – has now arrived!
We now have tools to exploit network data. Application aware switches - as part of a greater Application Fluent Network - are allowing for predictive analytics techniques to change network management from reactive to proactive. Combine this with unified network management through a single viewing window, and suddenly you have a very powerful and dynamic network management operation.
By allowing IT visibility of devices - and crucially important applications - across the network, the rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) can be safely controlled. More tasks can be automated than ever before, with a dynamic response to network and user needs becoming standard practice.
Targeted resource deployment makes for leaner IT
Effective application management has its own challenges. Looking at the network, big data provides the business intelligence necessary to closely manage application deployment by analyzing data traffic, including application performance and user feedback. Insight into how employees or partners are using applications allows IT departments to identify redundant features or least used devices and to scale back or increase support and development accordingly.
Through the effective deployment of resources based on data insight, ROI can be maximized. Smarter targeting of resources makes for a leaner IT deployment, and reduces the need for further investment in costly hardware and applications.
Converging on the future
We are now in a world where IT departments have shifted towards service delivery, delivering applications to the respective users though unified network management. With a flexible converged architecture and simplified application delivery, organizations will be able to maximize user benefits and at the same time reduce the total cost of ownership to meet the all important ROI requirements.
The advent of big data has brought with it the ability for IT departments to truly develop their smart network. Now it is up to businesses to seize the opportunity.
