Every new year brings new opportunities and challenges. And to compete and win in the application economy, companies and CIOs have to be prepared to embrace new ideas, goals and strategies.

Annual global IP traffic rates are predicted to pass the zettabyte threshold by the end of this year, with 53 percent of this coming from mobile and Wi-Fi devices. This equates to a massive amount of network traffic – and a massive amount of data.

Keeping this data flowing needs to be a key priority as users’ expectations around availability and performance increase. But what networking solutions and strategies will help the CIO achieve this goal? Here are five tips on the trends and technologies to watch:

Dynamic duo

Software-defined networking (SDN) created a lot of noise in 2015, but now it’s time for action. According to analyst Moor Insights & Strategy, SDN adoption will grow in 2016, particularly in relation to private clouds, big data and the Internet of Things.

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is also expected to have a good year, with CIOs becoming increasingly aware of the intersection between the two technologies. Both SDN and NFV are also being touted as key factors in the progression of 5G, which is due for release in 2017.

Proactive versus reactive

As SDN and NFV gain momentum, organizations will need to take a more dynamic approach to network management. Traditional static tools will be unable to provide sufficient visibility, let alone keep up with the ever-changing SDN/NFV ecosystem, making it difficult to track dependencies and resolve performance issues.

CIOs will need to look for assurance solutions that enable operational confidence into integrated hybrid monitoring, multi-layered stack performance and the critical service chain building blocks.

Play it safe

With more devices and datasets connected to the network, organizations will need to simplify and strengthen security. Maintaining security defences as the network infrastructure evolves will be particularly key, as change can equal risk.

Extended visibility of physical and virtual components will help network operations teams keep track of changes and the introduction of potential vulnerabilities. Greater orchestration of network management and monitoring tasks will also help remove the risk of human error and safeguard compliance.

As SDN/NFV environments mature, organizations will need to extend their assurance approach to the integrity and accuracy of provisioning systems to ensure the digital customer experience.

Head north

In the application economy, everything needs APIs. Industry analysts and the Open Networking Foundation are predicting 2016 will be a big year for Northbound Interface (NBI) trials and proof of concepts.

In an SDN architecture, northbound APIs are used to communicate between the SDN controller and the services and applications running over the network. They are key to enabling automation and orchestration and help optimize the performance of firewalls and load balancers.

An SDN/NFV assurance solution should embrace the new API communication methods for network monitoring and easily adapt as new vendors enter the market.

Analyze this

To maximize network agility, availability and scalability, organizations need real-time and historical insights across every component – virtual and physical.

For this reason, we are in the year of advanced analytics. Greater insight into SDN/NFV network utilization and performance will enable CIOs to right-size their new and old networks to meet the needs of the business, their customers and their apps.

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