A Telefonica White Paper. The impact of Cloud Computing and Hybrid IT into the WAN_

Transcription

1 A Telefonica White Paper The impact of Cloud Computing and Hybrid IT into the WAN_ October 2015

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3 Introduction Enterprises need to develop new services that keep up with the demands of their end-user consumer. Over the years technology has paved the way for sharing information. This is even more common today thanks to the inter-communication giant we know as social media. Whether we like it or not technology touches every part of our lives in the early years information communications technologies were only used within industry sectors, however, this reality has changed and evolved, meaning customers are now demanding connectivity to services that were once only for enterprises. Simultaneously, enterprise solutions are being influenced by technologies and trends within the consumer sector. As we all become more connected, technology needs to be even more inherently available to facilitate that communication end point seamlessly. Enterprises need to develop new services that keep up with the demands of their end-user consumer. Such needs are now shifting the way enterprises are approaching ICT and the manner in which they should deliver services in order to be coherent and future proof. Enterprises are currently facing a number of challenges from a variety of different areas: Customers demand more This is a digital world, where customer perception, trends and requirements are constantly changing. Security challenges Network infrastructures deployed in organizations are not suitably flexible to support changing work patterns or able to evolve to address existing and emerging security threats. Application performance Applications are in abundance now in every form. Network managers are looking to improve application performance to provide a better user experience. Increased ROI Enterprises are focusing on the need to make the most of the existing investment they have. IT managers are now looking at the use of networks in a Hybrid manner, utilizing both Private and Public networks. Use of Cloud Enterprises face the challenge of balancing the cost savings of adopting Cloud versus data sovereignty. Operational efficiency Enterprises want to reduce operational costs, improve productivity and generate financial growth and further expansion. This can only be achieved if an enterprise is connected regardless of location and within the framework of a service provider s network thus enabling growth and reduced time to market. 1.

4 Combining new technologies such as Cloud with existing platforms is a potential approach to addressing these challenges. It is currently too early to say, however Best of Breed services may emerge, whereby service providers leverage their WAN technology such as MPLS and combine it with a Cloud and Security service. This would deliver a scalable service that has the ability to provide cost efficiencies to enterprises. The growth of Cloud Cloud Computing is an established technology and it continues to reach new heights. Today s CIOs and IT managers look to the Cloud for an increased range of functions, including; business intelligence, desktop provisioning and business continuity. Enterprises are moving from an on-premise traditional IT computing model to one that is more utility based. Across the business value chain Enterprise CIOs and IT managers are increasing their use of Private and Public Clouds. A typical approach is based on the standard Cloud computing model. In this model services, applications and storage are made available to users over the internet as a service typically on a Pay Per Use structure commonly known as a Public Cloud. While Public Clouds are appealing to many businesses, as they reduce complexity and delivery lead times due to the underlying fixed architecture, there is less scope for security and performance customization. Public Cloud is available in different formats; the most common being Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Software as a service (SaaS). The economies of scale afforded by Public Cloud computing make this technology highly attractive. Public Cloud is available in different formats; the most common being Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Software as a service (SaaS). 2.

5 There are an increasing number of Cloud services available that satisfy all types of enterprise business requirements: IaaS Outsource computing equipment and resources such as servers and storage. Examples include: Amazon Web Services & Microsoft Azure. SaaS Delivers on-demand applications. Examples include: Google Apps, Salesforce & Cisco WebEx. PaaS Designed for software developers that streamlines the development process by shifting specific aspects of systems management to the service provider. Examples include: Google App engine & Apprenda. Private Clouds offer scope for advanced security, high availability or fault tolerant solutions that are not possible in a Public Cloud. Alternatively Private Clouds consist of Cloud infrastructure that is deployed solely for a single organization. This can be managed internally or hosted externally by a third-party. This approach requires a significant level of engagement from both management and IT departments to virtualize the business environment along with the need to evaluate how existing resources should be reallocated in the Cloud. Private Clouds offer scope for advanced security, high availability or fault tolerant solutions that are not possible in a Public Cloud. However, as they are effectively stand-alone solutions in their own right, building a Private Cloud still involves significant investment and does not therefore deliver the shorterterm economies that Public Cloud can. Organizations now want the best of both worlds from both Public and Private Cloud, hence the rise of the Hybrid Cloud. A Hybrid Cloud comprises both Private (internal) and Public (external) Cloud services. Typically a business might run an application primarily on a Private Cloud, but rely on a Public Cloud to accommodate spikes in usage. Customized rules and policies govern areas such as security and the underlying infrastructure, with tasks allocated to internal or external Clouds as necessary. 3.

6 This is a moment of truth where an organization must decide which approach to adopt and why; continue with Public or Private or a mix of both - a Hybrid Cloud? This will depend on the organization s strategy, the applications, the technical requirements and the commercial cost. The key differences are summarized here: 1. A Public Cloud offers a fully outsourced operation to a Cloud Service Provider enabling the enterprise to concentrate on its own core business. 2. A Private Cloud offers an in-house or external service where the enterprise or a third party fully manages the end-to-end environment. 3. A Hybrid Cloud is a mix and match of both Public and Private Cloud solutions. Gartner says nearly half of large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments by the end of 2017 (Gartner Press release, 1st October 2013). Each environment has its own specific needs, suffice to say that it culminates to a number of significant factors but is not limited to: Cost Storage Backup and recovery Software integration Access to information Deployment Security A common theme is the need for all organizations to reduce costs and achieve efficiencies in the market place by reducing time to market. Traditionally, the IT department demanded end-to-end control which required an enterprise to have their own assets in their own infrastructure which, in turn, led to increased costs and reduced time to market. 4.

7 Today, organizations are looking at IT as a transformational vehicle for its business in the digital revolution. New Cloud IT can provide a variety of benefits such as: Minimal upfront IT investment Cloud computing services are typically pay as you go, so there s no need for capital expenditure. As Cloud computing is much faster to deploy, businesses have minimal project start-up costs and predictable on-going operating expenses. Known operational costs For example, UK companies spent approximately 18 working days per month managing on-site security alone. However, Cloud computing suppliers carry out the server maintenance including security updates freeing up their customers time and resources for other tasks. Expert technical support Cloud service organizations have in-house expertise to quickly fault find and resolve issues. Technical staff are constantly up-skilled to understand latest technologies. Competitiveness The Cloud grants smaller enterprises access to large-enterpriseclass technology. It also allows smaller businesses to act faster than established large competitors, (wherever they are based, enterprises are becoming global thanks to the Cloud). A study on disaster recovery concluded that companies who didn t use the Cloud had to rely on tape backup methods and complicated procedures to recover data slow, & laborious. UK companies spent approximately 18 working days per month managing on-site security alone. Flexibility When a company requires un-forecast bandwidth immediately a Cloud-based service can instantly meet the demand due to the vast capacity of the service s remote servers. This flexibility is so crucial that 65% of respondents to an InformationWeek survey said the ability to quickly meet business demands was the most important benefit of the Cloud. At its core this is focused on enterprises moving from a CAPEX to an OPEX model and enabling the IT service unit to deliver an improved service and greater flexibility. 5.

8 How is the Cloud Computing and Hybrid IT impacting Network architecture? As we have established, enterprises should evaluate a number of factors when considering a Cloud environment. Logic suggests that adopting a Cloud service means utilizing the correct WAN technology. If an organization explored a Public Cloud service would they solely consider a public internet service or would they select private WAN technology? Or a mix of both? This is fundamentally driven by the end users and the applications being run within the Cloud. Logic suggests that adopting a Cloud service means utilizing the correct WAN technology. Since more and more Cloud Services are available there needs to be a consideration of the type of WAN required to be deployed to accommodate the end user experience demanded. Those considerations include: Latency and Packet Loss Latency and packet loss have a significant effect on throughput between customer locations and Cloud Service Providers. This sometimes has very minimal effect depending on the size of the data flow, however it can have great importance when larger bandwidth requirements are utilized Increasingly Cloud environments are using larger data and hence, in some instances, require low latency round trip delays to provide a good end user experience. Jitter Jitter is predominantly utilized to adapt to latency variations using the TCP protocol. However, this may not be the case when using mission critical applications, and it degrades as the network distance increases. Network Degradation When connecting different types of networks the distance can have a significant effect on the packet, in turn causing a degradation of the network in general. When using Cloud services this can become more pronounced depending on the distance for the packet to travel. Network Peering It is well established that passing traffic between different carriers can cause bottlenecks and overtime cause a negative effect on network performance. It can be adverse when peering with providers that have lower quality connectivity to enable cost savings. In some instances, an enterprise may purchase lower-cost internet services unaware that it may traverse a number of separate internet switching services. 6.

9 Percentage of Organizations Making a Significant Investment in Public Cloud What does it take to connect to the Cloud? Question Gartner asked: Has your organization made a significant investment in public cloud? Notes:The date in the graph above includes only those organizations currently using cloud services or planning to use cloud services in the next 24 months. Organizations not using cloud services are excluded. Percentages may not add to 100% because of rounding. Source: Gartner, Survey Analysis: Cloud Adoption Across Vertical Industries Exhibits More Similarities Than Differences, February 2015 While the potential benefits of running IT services in the Cloud are clear, there are still important challenges to overcome before the full promise of elastic Clouds can be realized. The nature of these challenges varies - affecting Cloud networks, computer resources and storage - and perhaps the most critical place they must be addressed is in Hybrid Cloud deployments. Most noticeably the challenges enterprises face includes: Ensuring Application Performance The majority of enterprises understand that performance of applications over a network is critical to their business. Application performance can have huge detrimental effects if they are not efficient and as a result could lead to a decline in customer satisfaction, employee productivity or brand reputation. Furthermore, with the increased use of Public Cloud services, it will be more difficult to monitor, manage and optimize traffic flows. Ubiquitous Application Access Enterprises moving to a world of hybrid IT want to access their applications from everywhere and anywhere. These increasingly mobilized applications need to support or be supported by the world of the new Hybrid IT to enable them to complete their actions. The majority of enterprises understand that performance of applications over a network is critical to their business. Agile and Flexible Working Networks and IT have to adapt to new flexible ways of working, to support employee collaboration and their engagement with the complete enterprise ecosystem. Importantly, this needs to be delivered through secure application availability accessible from anywhere. Securing Data Sovereignty Enterprises looking at a Hybrid Cloud are concerned with data security and how to ring-fence their data. Do they keep certain parts of their data in-house, do they house it in a Cloud environment, or do they do both (a hybrid approach)? All of which is decided within context of the local market regulation. Datacentre Networking Moving to the Cloud is becoming a common business decision and many enterprises are still trying to establish the best route to cloud adoption. When adopting a Hybrid Cloud approach for data centre services, a number of challenges need to be taken into consideration, including; traffic growth, capacity planning, moving data, mitigating identity fraud, licensing management and planning for new security risks. Today, most Cloud Service Providers have developed their services over the Internet and most customers have developed their first Cloud Initiatives primarily using Internet as their WAN solution. Does this mean, therefore, that the inception of the Cloud has made organizations less reliant on the traditional WAN? 7.

10 Is the WAN dead? It can be argued that WAN is evolving into a foundation for other services to meet enterprises demands; Cloud services, Monitoring services and Security services to name but a few. Cloud services are changing the way IT departments in enterprises are designing, deploying, and managing Wide Area Networks. Cloud services are now considered first as a service and secondly as an opportunity to utilize the communication media to suit accordingly. This drives a number of questions; Is this the way forward? How do they build a Cloud service and reverse engineer the way it connects to the network? How will the new service fit with the current WAN provision? It is important to first consider the Wide Area Network (WAN). There has been a debate with regard to what a WAN actually is, how it will evolve and its future role in the new Cloud Computing and Hybrid IT world. A Wide Area Network is a network that covers a broad area (i.e., any telecommunications network that links across metropolitan, regional, national or international boundaries) using leased telecommunication lines. Business and government entities use WANs to relay data among employees, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations. In essence, this mode of telecommunication allows a business to effectively carry out its daily function regardless of location. The Internet can be considered a WAN as well, and is used by businesses, governments, organizations, and individuals for almost any purpose imaginable. Source: Groth, David and Skandler, Toby (2009). Network+ Study Guide, Fourth Edition An increasing number of enterprises are now considering the way in which they can adopt Cloud in a more agile and scalable way. On one hand, they are assessing Public and Private Cloud infrastructure and services. Normally the use of Public Cloud services is higher than expected driven directly by Business Units (commonly considered Shadow IT). In addition, the expected growth of mobile users in the enterprise will be significant over the coming years. On the other hand, they are assessing existing WAN solutions and infrastructure to understand where they can leverage a more flexible, future-proof solution and better ROI model. At the end the IT objective is to provide the business a better service and assure margin sustainability. Different high bandwidth access technologies (fiber, 4G, wifi) are becoming widely available and a higher variety of WAN services are also available (Ethernet, IP MPLS, Internet) for different locations and needs. With this wider offer it makes sense to think that best-ofbreed and Hybrid WAN solutions could be a good approach to solve the Hybrid IT challenges. 8.

11 The Internet is a permanent and integral part of enterprise WANs. The Internet continues to play an increasingly important role in the enterprise WAN. Network planners must establish a WAN strategy that can meet both evolving application deployment models and the performance requirements of these applications. Businesses are now increasingly relying on the Internet for connectivity to important business applications; this is especially driven by two key changes: 1. Gartner forecasts show that around 30% of enterprises are using public cloud services, such as Amazon, saleforce.com or Office 365. This is growing by around 17% annually, which means that business processes are becoming increasingly reliant on external cloud services. The majority of these applications reside in public cloud services that use Internet access. 2. Enterprises are increasingly mobilizing their applications for easy access from mobile devices outside of offices. Mobility is becoming critical to the business, and, for this reason, mobility has been the No. 2 priority on the CIO agenda for two years in a row. Although only a very small share of ultramobiles (clamshells, hybrids and tablets) are connected to mobile broadband today, Gartner forecasts that, by 2018, half of the installed base of these devices will use mobile broadband when a Wi-Fi connection is not available. Network planners must anticipate the escalating need to connect mobile users to the enterprise WAN. Source: Gartner - Hybrid Will Be the New Normal for Next Generation Enterprise WAN, September 2014 Businesses are now increasingly relying on the Internet for connectivity to important business applications.[ ] Telefonica s aim is to support customers in their Cloud adoption journey. Telefonica have the scalability and scope to cover these challenges and provide enhanced network service propositions. With new development of capabilities to complete a robust solution set the company is well positioned to support customers on their IT transformation. 9.

12 Enhancing the Connectivity with the CSPs? Customers are moving away from expensive proprietary and private IT solutions in favour of more standardized and industrialized Cloud solutions. In addition they are looking to outsource their IT infrastructure to shared Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), thus reducing IT investments and operational costs. Telefonica s Virtual Data Center and Cloud/Datacenter solutions can help enterprises adopt Cloud services with inherent security and confidence as they have with our network service. They also are examples of this movement of customer corporate IT toward Cloud and Datacenter Service Providers (See Telefonica Cloud Services portfolio). A growing number of CSPs are increasing the number of cloud services available for a variety of enterprises, from SMBs to Large Corporations, including: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Compute, SalesForce, IBM Softlayer and Cisco, among others. CSP customers can create their own Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) where they can run their corporate IT applications, Databases, or Web sites. Enterprises can also connect their premises to their VPC through public internet, however, this solution may not be sufficient to solve application performance issues such as latency, jitter or network degradation. Due to this, many CSPs are opening the possibility to provide more secure and reliable MPLS access to their Cloud platforms. The Cloud Connect Service offers Telefonica customers the best way to connect their corporate VPN to the selected CSP. This service can connect enterprises to their desired Cloud Service Providers through their global MPLS VPN using dedicated connectivity to CSPs. Telefonica is one of the largest communications companies in the world and offers a complete solution based on global reach, reliability, performance, simplicity, innovation and experience. The Cloud Connect Service extends Telefonica s global portfolio and addresses the growing demands of connectivity to the CSP community. Telefonica has a global MPLS network that reaches more than 170 countries that can interconnect globally to CSPs platforms in a secure and reliable way. Customers do not need to rely 100% on accessing CSP platforms through the internet as Telefonica can connect customers to CSP platforms in a secure and reliable way through their WAN services. Telefonica is one of the largest communications companies in the world and offers a complete solution based on global reach, reliability, performance, simplicity, innovation and experience. 10.

13 Is this the way forward? It is enough? What about Private Cloud Solutions? The demand for datacenter connectivity is growing as data traffic explodes and the origin of this traffic in the datacenter is forecast to grow by double digits. This trend will consolidate with the deployment of Private Cloud solutions. With ultra-broadband fiber access solutions Telefonica is able to meet these requirements of higher capacity. An additional option is to create network hubs to extend private IT services reach and enable enterprises to be more global. These hubs are essentially extensions of the enterprises corporate IT network; in essence it allows the enterprises IT resources to be near large populations of employees or users in data centers connected to many different networks and Clouds. Telefonica is also partnering with third parties Collocation and Hosting Service Providers to enable the deployment of global Private Clouds and Network Hubs in order to provide enterprises with the options and capabilities they require in their business. As we have established, it is clear that Service Providers are now actively participating in the Cloud revolution and moving forward to create an eco-system that compliments their existing services. Should Communication Service Providers partner with Cloud Service Providers? Yes; In order to deliver a successful journey for enterprise Hybrid IT adoption Communication and Cloud service provider partnerships have a key role to play. Cloud services are the dominant trend and this is recognized.. However, as previously discussed, the application requirements and the connectivity medium also need to be considered to assure end-user experience. 11.

14 How can end user performance be guaranteed in the new Cloud Computing and Hybrid IT scenario? Whether it is beyond MPLS, internet, or a mixture of the two, it is clear that the technology needs to adapt to embed Cloud-ready network services. A Cloud environment providing services to the enterprise can deliver many positive outcomes, however the question remains: how does an enterprise guarantee that data within the Cloud will arrive at its destination in a manner that is safe and monitored? With the increasing use of Public Cloud services and mobile device proliferation enterprise traffic flow is more difficult to manage and predict. Governance is about accountability and making good decisions regarding performance predictability. This is the case whether one is governing one s own data center or adopting the Cloud. At its most basic, governance is grounded in the application of policies relating to the services being used. It s about defining the organizing principles and rules that determine how an organization should behave and work within these industryspecific regulations. 12. Consider governance for Application Visibility and Control, where applications are being accessed within the organization and by any user, irrespective of their ports and protocols. Based on the network access policies, time and each user s job role, it offers application control to organizations. This supports the acceleration of businesscritical applications, staggers non-critical applications, selectively accelerates socio-business applications and blocks undesirable applications in order to achieve the twin goal of Application QoS and optimal bandwidth utilization. Applications are classified based on their risk level, characteristics and technology, offering more granular controls. The pro-active protection model eliminates the need for manual intervention by an administrator to update policies for new applications that are being added to the list. Real-time network logs and reports further allow organizations to promptly re-set network settings for maximum security and productivity. This is just one aspect of Governance associated with the Cloud. Enterprises need to recognize the real value by understanding their customers, their business and most of all what applications require detailed governance. The use of long distance CSP solutions also brings the need to optimize the performance of some applications for many companies. The emergence of the Cloud has brought about the discussion of latency and how applications can overcome this latency if there is extended distance between the Cloud and the end user. Adopting Optimization has the ability to drive higher-quality user experiences. User tolerances for slow incomplete pages have reduced drastically. This is particularly true in the retail arena where online shoppers can quickly lose patience with poor site performance. Utilising Optimization services can provide a more scalable and a better user experience when long distance services have to be accessed. This scenario will become more common due to IT consolidation projects and the adoption of the cloud. As such, the use of Cloud optimization technology will provide an attractive solution. These solutions may include Application Visibility and Control and Optimization services designed to assure a world class user experience for enterprises, all of which are available within the extensive Telefonica service portfolio.

15 Hybrid WAN will be the new norm in Enterprise WAN. Enterprises have traditionally utilized connectivity mediums such as MPLS which provide very reliable and secure networks. Other smaller or green-field enterprises may initially purchase a Public internet service. As previously remarked, more and more enterprises are now considering the use of both - the Hybrid approach - depending on the individual requirements. With this in mind, a growing number of enterprises are looking at a mix of connectivity mediums where they can utilize the best of both worlds. When using the Hybrid approach the connectivity of both Private and Public connectivity to the Cloud needs to be consistent and reliable. Using technologies that enable the balancing of the Public and Private Cloud connectivity may provide the answer of how to connect Public and Private networks in a secure manner with the inherent routing required to suffice both links. It is the technology at the enterprise end that makes the solution more viable as it allows the use of the Public and Private networks to be utilized in a seamless way. When using the Hybrid approach the connectivity of both Private and Public connectivity to the Cloud needs to be consistent and reliable.[ ] The concurrent use of Private and Public Cloud requires technology to be present so that the data can traverse both the Public networks and also the Private networks in such a way that is seamless to the end users. These technologies are not new, they are established, however, until recently have not been very efficient. A number of routing features that can allow data to traverse Public and Private networks in a more efficient manner are now addressing this lack of efficiency. Solutions such as: Locator Identifier Separation Protocol (LISP), Performance Routing (PfR), plus the use of technologies that make the most of legacy routing protocols such as Routing Internet Protocol (RIP), Open Shortest Path First Protocol (OSPF) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). 13.

16 Telefonica can provide enterprises with solutions including these technologies that allow a seamless use of Public and Private interworking. These solutions enable: Simplification of branch-office communications by enabling direct branch office-tobranch office connectivity for business applications such as voice. Reduction of deployment complexity by offering a zero-touch configuration, dramatically reducing the deployment complexity in VPNs. Improvement of business resilience by preventing disruption of business-critical applications and services by incorporating routing with standards-based IPsec. And the future? Exploding levels of data, virtualized infrastructure and Cloud computing drive tremendous demands on networks and management resources. Existing networks are paving the way to a new connectivity medium called Software Defined Networking and new efficient Virtualised Network solutions called Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) SDN will enable enterprises to program network layers, separating the data plane from the control plane while NFV will allow for agile placement of networking services when and where they are needed. By enabling this level of programmability, SDN and NFV can enable users to optimize their network resources, increase network agility, facilitate service innovation, accelerate service time-to-market, extract business intelligence and ultimately enable dynamic, service-driven virtual networks. To date, approaches to virtualize the network layer and add programmability are just emerging. The Networking Industry and Services Providers are working hard to standardize and implement the initial implementations of these technologies and solutions. Software-defined operators will see dramatic costs reductions, including 40-50% savings in energy, CAPEX reductions, improved efficiency in the overall operations (as much as 35% OPEX savings just by automating processes), and reduced time-to-market when deploying services. Source: IEEE Cloud Computing Telefonica is an ETSI NFV organization founder and is playing an active and leading role in the standardization and implementation of network virtualization solutions. New services are under development and definition and are expected to deliver more agile, flexible and efficient network solutions to help enterprises in their digital transformation. 14.

17 Do you have the right partner in this journey? Enterprises need to thoroughly evaluate their business needs and their customer requirements to make the right decisions on their journey to the Cloud. As history shows, many organizations that have made a determined stance in their strategy have failed miserably, whilst others are reaping the benefits. What is fundamental in every enterprise s journey is making sure they choose the right provider to partner with. So, what makes a good partner? Global Presence There needs to be a working relationship between the enterprise and a global partner who can provide global reach and deliver the services required. A global partner not only gives access to a larger reach, but also provides further enhancement to resources outside of their own footprint with the use of external partners. A global partner not only gives access to a larger reach, but also provides further enhancement to resources outside of their own footprint with the use of external partners. Agile A partner needs to be agile as this agility results in efficient provision of services and simultaneously provides a more effective way of providing bespoke services. Furthermore, in the context of on-going security risks a flexible and robust approach is required when reacting to incidents and threats Integrated Services Enterprises are increasingly seeking services that are integrated into the fabric of the partner - using less external services and utilizing services designed and perfected in-house. Scalable Demand is on a steep trajectory and enterprises demand a partner that has the ability to provide services that can meet their fluctuating needs. They require a service that can offer increased capability on demand with no impact on the delivery cycle of the service. Cost Effective As margins are ever more challenging, enterprises are investigating services to support new and efficient methods of operating. This means that the right partner has to actively work closely with the enterprise to identify the right solution and provide the most cost-effective services. Comprehensive end-user approach End-user requirements need to be taken into consideration at the design stage of a service. Enterprises are looking for partners with a similar ethos. A partner needs to understand the end user experience and focus on this to provide a homogeneous service. to be taken into consideration at the design stage of a service. Telefonica is already helping enterprises move securely into the new Cloud Computing and Hybrid IT. Telefonica has the right capabilities, assets, knowledge and experience to help customers solve the challenges in the networks to satisfy the requirements for this new IT. 15.

18 Conclusion As the CEO and CIO interest in leveraging Public and Private Cloud computing services becomes part of the wider adoption plan, the WAN needs to be able to support these initiatives, while still maintaining network security, visibility and control. Enterprises will need to take in to consideration the impact on the end users and application performance in order to overcome the important challenges that remain ahead. As bandwidth demands are growing substantially each year, most IT budgets are flat or declining. Doubling the bandwidth of expensive private WAN services such as MPLS every months is just not a sustainable option. On the other hand, the growing use of the internet without the right strategy may cause poor end-user experience and a lack of management and security. In addition, using MPLS to push all internet access through the data centre to allow a distributed workforce to access the Cloud will also negatively affect performance, cost and in addition productivity. Irrespective of the combination of Public and Private Cloud services, enterprises should act now and review their WAN strategy. The WAN such as MPLS needs to adapt and evolve to integrate more cost effective internet solutions, provide seamless interworking infrastructure with cloud services and assure end-user experience. In addition to their own cloud service proposition Communication Service providers can provide enterprises with secure and reliable connectivity with a growing variety of Cloud Service Providers. CIOs are always seeking to provide the best ICT support for their business strategy and to simultaneously achieve operational efficiencies. This remains a difficult balance to accomplish as more and more end user experience is at the core of all decision making. The emergence of newer technologies such as SDN and NFV will help both communication services providers and enterprises succeed in these challenges. There are many hurdles to overcome but what is clear is that Telefonica is dedicated to working with enterprises to achieve their strategic objectives whatever they may be, using the most appropriate technology and solution. For further information about our network services contact us at [email protected] or visit our website: 16.

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