Page 11 - FCW, April 15, 2016

SPECIAL REPORT NETWORK TRANSFORMATION Sponsored Content
Navigating Next-Generation Networks TSimply refreshing network technology is no longer sufficient. Agencies need
to be thinking about network transformation and innovation.
he network is the lifeblood applications are often cloud based fortune. Agencies report that they of federal agencies’ many to enable greater collaboration and spend 80 percent of their IT budgets missions today. The readiness consistency. Additionally, government just on maintaining legacy IT
of people and organizations users today are mobile, and systems. That doesn’t leave much
to do the work required by consequently must have and expect funding left for innovation and
the mission depends more anytime, anywhere access to data. transformation.
and more on leveraging a reliable, In many cases, existing agency Just as missions have transformed, resilient and secure network to network architectures have created the approach to network
access and share information. However, much of today’s
network architecture was developed more than a decade ago when applications and data storage
were primarily on-site. Today,
data is stored in multiple, often off-site locations and mission
complex legacy ecosystems not optimized for today’s network utilization. This results in service delivery, provisioning, troubleshooting and repair challenges, not to mention a complex cyber-resiliency challenge.
Maintaining these legacy networks is costing federal agencies a small
architecture must transform.
We are on the precipice of a network evolution that requires thinking differently about network architecture, one in which we
give up the belief that the network is rigid, inflexible, static and
often considered “in the way” of innovation and service delivery.
THE PATH TO CONTINUED INNOVATION
If an agency’s network isn’t as efficient as it could be, and isn’t sufficiently elastic to support dynamic bandwidth requirements, then what’s the solution? A simple answer would be to upgrade the network, but that is likely to be an imperfect fix. The better solution requires changing people’s mindsets from network patches to network transformation, which allows continuous innovation to achieve needed efficiency and security while future-proofing the network.
“As newer cybersecurity solutions are introduced and continually evolve, the agencies’ underlying networks need to be able to take advantage of the capabilities they afford,” said Tim Meehan, Senior Vice President and General Manager of CenturyLink Government.
Adopting a network transformation mindset means combining best-of-breed technology
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