Accelerating your network: 10 ways to deliver a race-ready network every day

Just like a high-performance race car needs precise handling and a well-tuned engine, your network must be finely tuned to deliver exceptional performance and drive your organization toward success.

Here are 10 key strategies to consider that can help ensure your organization’s network is race-ready every day.

1. Unleash the power of networking with the right services

Reimagine your network technology, operations and consumption by shifting to a network-as-a-service (NaaS) model. Making this change is like upgrading your network to a high-performance race car that can more quickly and easily maneuver through the digital landscape.

NaaS solutions give you access to the latest network innovations and a host of cloud-based, ready-to-provision operational services, which make it much easier to scale and adapt your network to changing business needs.

With a NaaS you get connectivity, network security and automation already built in. Add a cloud-native management platform, like ours, and you can provision and manage your network from a centralized dashboard.

• ALSO READ → How does network as a service help your organization?

2. Shift into high gear with network automation

Automation is an essential part of network management. It offers more precision and can significantly reduce manual configurations and human errors, so it’s ideal for freeing up valuable IT resources.

Such automation capabilities enable efficient provisioning, configuration management and policy enforcement across your network. Embedded into your network operations, automation streamlines your admin and processes even more by automating routine tasks, reducing the need for manual configuration and ensuring policy consistency.

These tools can really help you maintain your network and make it the well-oiled engine your organization needs to sprint ahead of the competition.

3. Accelerate data insights with network analytics

Just as racing teams rely on telemetry data to fine-tune their vehicles, network analytics give administrators the ability to make data-driven decisions and maintain peak network performance.

By monitoring your network performance in real time, identifying trends and tapping into actionable insights, you can make the most of your network resources and enhance the user experience.

Add to this full visibility of network traffic, application performance and user behavior, also in real time, and you can identify and resolve network issues before they even affect your users.

4. Reach new speeds with performance optimization

In the world of racing, every millisecond counts. The same goes for your network. It’s critical to continuously optimize the performance of your network to deliver exceptional speed and responsiveness.

For maximum efficiency, you have to regularly assess and adjust network configuration, bandwidth allocation and application prioritization.

5. Secure-by-design architecture: the ultimate safety harness

The most effective network security is built in, much like a race car’s roll cage or the fireproofing of a driver’s race suit.

When you implement a secure-by-design approach, security protocols are embedded – and measured – at every network infrastructure layer.

Look for a NaaS offering that emphasizes security at every layer, providing advanced security features such as threat intelligence, encryption and secure access controls. Built-in, intuitive security intends to keep your network protected against the threats you’ve planned for and the ones you couldn’t possibly predict, giving you the confidence to push the boundaries without compromising safety.

• ALSO READ → Get your SASE strategy right with a managed solution

6. Race ahead of latency by embracing the edge

Everyone understands that a race car’s aerodynamics are essential for speed.

Edge networking works much the same way: when you deploy resources closer to the edge, it reduces latency, optimizes network traffic at the edge and improves application performance – and, in turn, user experience.

7. Take the fast lane with software-defined networking

Software-defined networking (SDN) puts you in the driver’s seat of your network, giving you centralized control and the ability to manage network resources more dynamically than before. It’s like having a pit crew that can instantly upgrade your network capabilities during a race.

By decoupling the network control plane from the underlying hardware, SDN lets you optimize network traffic, increase agility and scale, and reduce costs.

A good NaaS offering should fully incorporate SDN solutions, enabling you to adopt and apply software-defined principles, simplify network management, improve traffic flow and enable rapid network provisioning. Another good reason to consider NaaS.

8. Drive efficiency and reliability with managed services

Race teams rely on a skilled crew for maintenance and support. Managed services are similar, ensuring your network operates at peak performance.

You get 24/7 network monitoring, proactive issue resolution, security and performance optimization, and lose the administrative burden, as well as the challenge of recruiting limited skill sets, with a dedicated team of experts on hand to keep things running and evolving at the speed you need.

These services keep your network resilient, secure and continuously optimized, freeing your internal IT team to concentrate on strategic initiatives.

9. Get ahead of the curve with continuous monitoring and optimization

A high-performance race car is constantly checked and fine-tuned to remain in top working order, and your network should be no different.

Maintaining a race-ready network requires ongoing monitoring and optimization. This calls for the implementation of comprehensive network monitoring tools that provide real-time insights into your network’s performance, allowing you to detect and resolve issues proactively.

• ALSO READ → Visibility and observability are mission-critical for your network

10. A partnership with NTT and HPE Aruba Networking

If you haven’t gathered already, building a race-ready network demands a combination of advanced technologies, strategies and the relentless pursuit of performance.

Just like a professional race-car driver relies on a well-engineered machine and support team, your organization can rely on our partnership to deliver a network that is finely tuned, secure and optimized.