Follow trends and research to increase networking innovations

Ken Presti

In addition to Avant’s report, the company recently launched a market research initiative called Avant Analytics, which looks at emerging trends, such as cloud services, colocation, SD-WAN, UCaaS and security. Avant will package that information for both enterprise customers and Avant’s channel partners. The partners — called Trusted Advisors — aim to provide additional insight into specific technologies and trends to C-suite executives, said Ken Presti, lead analyst for the Avant Analytics initiative.

Overall, SD-WAN is the most disruptive technology of 2019, with 74% of respondents indicating they plan to adopt SD-WAN While 85% of respondents said their organizations have a DX plan, only 55% are extremely confident in that plan. Respondents from enterprises and other large organizations were more likely to have a plan and feel confident in it. Factors that contributed to lower confidence included a lack of internal IT resources and expertise, as well as an insufficient budget dedicated to networking innovations, Avant said.

A shortage of internal IT expertise and resources can impede an organization’s DX plan because the market grows and changes rapidly, causing many organizations without dedicated staffs to struggle to keep up with advances. Staying aware of industry changes in this era of constant and competitive networking innovations helps organizations avoid confusion and ensure they invest in technologies and services well-suited to their networks, Lydecker said.

“Trying to figure out where the market is going and what type of technology you can bring in that can fundamentally change your company forever is something [enterprise customers are] super interested in,” Lydecker said.

Respondents said they look for technology that increases network flexibility, agility, efficiency and scalability, according to Avant. Teams also wanted to reduce costs, receive productivity gains and increase ROI. Challenges that teams faced included insufficient budgets and network planning.