The Rise of Hybrid Networks

If the public Internet could speak in its own defense, it would likely quote Mark Twain’s London 1897 remark, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” For the past decade or two, network solution vendors and others peddling various enterprise services have all declared the public Internet is broken, or worse, dead. Those naysayers focused on the public Internet’s perceived security issues, bottlenecks and Quality of Service (QoS) issues. Sure, they had solutions, but those came with high costs, contractual lock-in and slow deployment. You were also giving up the biggest benefit of the public Internet – being connected to the 4.6 billion people and some 21 billion things on it.

Softwareization to the Rescue

Instead of avoiding the public Internet, today’s businesses can leverage a mix of SDN and NFV called Software-defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) to enable the public Internet while providing high levels of security and QoS. Known as softwareization, this approach has raised network data to increase visibility and share data with applications such as AI and machine learning for network automation and route optimization. Data delivers insights for improved planning, usage and to more rapidly resolve issues. Most importantly, softwareization enables self-service and bandwidth on-demand applications, allowing customers to more flexibly manipulate bandwidth or services according to their needs.

Hybrid Clouds, Why Not Hybrid Networks?

With softwareization, an enterprise can tackle networks the same way it has cloud—by taking a hybrid approach. The drivers for hybrid cloud adoption include different corporate needs for different environments where some applications and use cases are better suited for the pay-as-you-grow flexibility of the public cloud and others for the dedicated, secure and customized private cloud. Similarly, diverse needs are driving more flexible adoption of both public Internet and private connectivity among enterprises.

For example, smaller firms with less critical requirements, and who operate in just one or two countries may best be served by an SD-WAN-enabled, low cost public Internet connection. An office in New York connecting to a data center in California using the public Internet can inexpensively deliver data on a round trip in just 20-25 milliseconds with the right selection of ISP.

Larger firms with more branch offices spread across the world or vertical industries handling big or sensitive data sets that involve strict compliance regulations such as healthcare, insurance, and financial services may still prefer high-performance, private, dedicated networks to meet extra cautious security, government and legal liability requirements. They may also have sites with very high availability requirements, such as manufacturing sites, large offices, customer support sites, and so on, where connectivity simply can’t fail. When these firms access the Internet for communications, accessing online content or using SaaS apps, they pay particular attention to globally consistent performance, protection from malicious attacks, and routing security.

Twain or More, Whatever Network Works Best for Your Business

Just as with hybrid cloud strategies, it is best to match business needs to the network and tech environment that most optimally supports it. Using dedicated, private connectivity or the public Internet to reach the cloud are both good, viable options. Luckily for our customers, Telia Carrier offers both.  We have Cloud Connect services and has partnered with AWS, Azure, Oracle, Google and IBM Clouds for businesses that do want private dedicated networks. These new direct connect services offer more flexible speeds, pricing and contracts with faster time-to-deployment.

Telia Carrier’s network also handles the majority of the world’s Internet traffic, with direct customers accounting for 65 percent of global Internet routes, according to CAIDA. So, whether you’re a large or small business looking for public Internet, IP Transit, Cloud Connect, Ethernet, IoT Backbone or IPX services, we have you covered. To find out how we can help your business, click here to get in touch with us. 

Mattias Fridström, VP & Chief Evangelist

We are hosting our first Telia Carrier Summit on November 11, about Internet connectivity from three different perspectives. Join the session session dedicated to hybrid networks! Read more and register here.