Just over a year ago, business leaders across the UK were forced to make tough decisions surrounding how to enable and secure their workforce in the mass shift to remote working. For some, the IT infrastructure was already in place to make the transition smooth, but 12 months of home working has stretched it to its limits. For others, with little digitisation to support them, quick responses were taken in a patchwork fashion, and the solution often became an acceleration towards hybrid cloud infrastructures.

With such fast and dramatic changes, security risks increased, and network performance often suffered. What's more, visibility into data-in-motion became clouded, as networks were clogged up with an abundance of traffic from personal and unsecured devices, while the rapid growth in hybrid infrastructure created dangerous blind spots. Now, with fluid workforces set to stay, it is essential that businesses find ways to regain control over their increasingly complex networks.

EMBRACE AUTOMATION
Data volumes are growing far beyond the capacity for human analysis. Not only does 5G have a role to play in this deluge of data, but the vast amounts of new traffic from personal devices will also have a detrimental effect on a business' network efficiency. Network automation is one way to solve this issue, and according to a recent survey, 97% of IT leaders agree that process automation is an essential part of digital transformation.

However, what and how we automate has changed dramatically across the last ten years. Today, automating delivery of data to service triage and performance management tools is a simple process, despite its complexity in the past. Automating data intelligence has also become more popular for organisations looking for ways to free up their workforce, find potential bottlenecks in their infrastructure and mitigate the impact of cyberattacks. Ultimately, automation allows data-in-motion to be transformed into valuable insights that will improve processes and support the overstretched workforce, without the need for human intervention.

INVEST IN PEOPLE AND ADJUST YOUR STRATEGY
In a year where we have all been siloed and separated, working collaboratively is often no longer possible without technology as the enabler. However, this technology will not function efficiently without an experienced and skilled workforce behind it. While network automation supports IT teams as they struggle with the digital skills gap, organisations must ensure they have an expert team working alongside smart automation. With this combination, ROI becomes more measurable, and business processes begin to improve.

The last 12 months have also demonstrated to many IT teams and C-suite leaders that organisations not only need to be willing to adjust their technology and infrastructure, but also change their policies and work processes. To meet the demand for a mass-shift to home working, many businesses had to change their approach, or risk losing staff and clients - it was a case of innovate or fail. The fluid workforce is looking set to stay, meaning companies must prioritise agility and be prepared to adapt their strategies, especially their cybersecurity defence systems, based on the current changeable climate.

ALWAYS PRIORITISE VISIBILITY
Regardless of whether visibility is needed to embrace automation or to bolster cybersecurity, establishing a clear view across a network is essential to regain control over data-in-motion and push forward with digital transformation initiatives. NetOps teams must be able to see into all on-premise, public, private and hybrid cloud infrastructure. No traffic - even encrypted data - should be out of view. To make this visibility possible, businesses should ensure they take a holistic approach to managing their IT infrastructure, monitoring all their technology assets as if through a single pane of glass. The level visibility will allow for more insights into network traffic that can improve business processes and ease the pressure on IT teams.

NetOps teams are still facing the need to do more with less, as digital transformation initiatives continue but budgets remain tight. Network automation has therefore become a viable and valuable option for IT experts, and by ensuring that visibility is prioritised, these automation solutions can flourish. Business leaders must now understand that choosing whether or not to automate processes will significantly impact business success - or lack of - in the future. NC