8MARCH - APRIL 2017Digital Transformation: The Networking Challenge of Our TimeBy Andrew Dugan, SVP-Network Architecture & Engineering, Level 3 CommunicationsIn My OpinionAnywhere we look today, across nearly every industry and continent, we see evidence of a world in the midst of a digital transformation. Regardless of their traditional markets and models, businesses ranging from local coffee shops to multinational manufacturers are becoming­or have already become­digital enterprises, ones that leverage technology to streamline operations, provide a differentiated customer experience, and connect customers with products and services to stay competitive. In fact, according to IDC, by the end of this year, two-thirds of the world's largest companies­across verticals and disciplines­will be focusing their corporate strategy on digital transformation. As those evolutions continue to grow in number and scale, they are pumping a steady influx of fuel into a perpetual digital explosion, driving the need for ever-faster and ever more agile infrastructure, putting pressure on IT resources and continually transforming the way businesses build and interact with their networks.Making Sense Out of Complexity Take the example of a modern day coffee shop for instance, vastly different from just a few years ago, with its need for network and IT infrastructure to support everything from the point-of-sale system to WiFi to online ordering. Suddenly, the coffee shop is an IT company, forced to design, manage and secure a network to stay competitive. At stake is more than lukewarm latte.Given this, it's not surprising to learn that businesses need to get a handle on network cost management and optimization. Yet, businesses, large and small, are finding this is not so easily done. While the digital evolution has certainly benefited the modern enterprise, it also has served as a significant challenge, leading to haphazard infrastructure growth and needless complexity.Early on in its adoption, SDN offered a few important features to help with this complexity. Yet, they could only be accessed through a handful of select service offerings, like Ethernet. Some of the features offered by SDN included dynamic scaling of bandwidth on a scheduled, automated or ad hoc basis; Andrew Dugan
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