a guide to the role technology will play moving forward...a tech research asia report whitepaper...

A TECH RESEARCH ASIA REPORT

WHITEPAPER

SD-WAN and the Future of Work A guide to the role technology will play moving forward

What comes next after the flexible and digital working movement of the past decade, and can your IT and business leaders provide a compelling answer? There has already been a significant shift in the way most Australian organisations approach workplace strategies and technology; as our research shows, flexibility and mobility are now the expected status quo. This has accelerated as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Even so, we are likely to need to undergo continued change.

The technologies and policies we’ve adopted to enable the flexible digital workplace of 2020 will continue to evolve exponentially. The industry will see as much change in the next five years as it saw in the decade from 2010 to now. Recent global events have acted as a disruptive force that has accelerated the adoption of alternative work practices and it’s unlikely we will return to our previous behaviours.


As the market evolves, complacency could mean organisations lose the sought-after “employer of choice” status that drove them over the past decade. This will result in lower productivity, challenges with recruitment and retention, brand impacts, etc.

This is not to suggest we won’t continue to pursue the technologies and strategies that have proven successful to date, such as cloud adoption, mobile technology, collaboration and social tools, data-driven approaches, shared workspaces, trust- and outcomes-based management, and more.

We absolutely will need to continue investment and improvement in these areas. And, the way your employees work in 2025 will also be enabled by different technologies, including evolutions in the way we will connect including virtualised Wide Area Networking (among others we’ll mention).

In this Tech Research Asia (TRA) insights report, we’ll introduce the top 10 technologies that will impact workplaces in the next few years and provide an introduction to SD-WAN. We also offer steps to help you kickstart or review your own approach.

THE 2025 WORKPLACE TECHNOLOGIES

There are some critical emerging technologies that TRA believes will underpin the way your employees will work between 2020 and 2025. And they go far beyond what we’ve been quickly embracing as a result of COVID-19. This is not an exhaustive list and, of course, there are some technologies specific to industries that are missing. Our intent is to provide you with a starting point and the main technologies that will be prevalent across most industries.

It is also important to recognise that any of our predictions are not single technologies, but rather the integration of several that will, for all intents and purposes, need to be integrated into a broader strategy and technology and business management approach.

The list includes:


SOFTWARE-DEFINED WORKPLACE INFRASTRUCTURE: Software-defined datacentres, networking and SD-WAN (software-defined wide area networks) will become prevalent.

AI AND VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS: Tailored to specific roles and learning over time with experience, AI and virtual assistants will become commonplace.

5G-ENABLED SYSTEMS: 5G will likely be combined with other technologies and deployed for targeted use cases that impact employees directly.

SIMPLIFIED UC AND COLLABORATION IN REAL TIME: We expect a strong focus on consolidating UC and collaboration tools, a simplification of the user experience and a focus on real-time capabilities.

AUTONOMOUS AND SEMI-AUTONOMOUS MACHINES: Examples include self-driving cars, trucks, trains and ships, as well as drones and robots used for security, maintenance and image collection.

THE DIGITAL TWIN OF IoT DESIGNED AND QUANTIFIED WORKPLACES: This is already an emerging trend with the construction of new commercial office buildings (see The Edge as an example) and workplaces of all types.

TRACEABILITY SYSTEMS: This may feature distributed ledger technology (DLT)—also known as aka blockchain—combined with IoT and automation tools.

SELF-HEALING SECURITY SYSTEMS: These are likely to combine technologies like 4K to 8K CCTV, multi-level biometrics, encryption everywhere, and AI-tools that support and scan perpetually.

THE NEW REALITY AND TECHNOLOGY: Many organisations will turn to improved versions of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) tools to help support their employees.

AUTOMATION EVERYWHERE: We also expect automation to be pushed to the very edges of every organisation over the next few years.

THE 2025 WORKPLACE TECHNOLOGIES LIST


REPORTED OFFICIAL SUPPORT FOR WORK STYLES IN AUSTRALIA -FLEXIBLE VS TRADITIONAL

Figure 1 Compiled from TRA research (sponsored and independent) and publicly available market data (e.g. ABS). 2010-19 figures are perceived support indicated by IT and business leaders in Australia. 2020 to 25 figures are TRA forecasts.


WHAT IS SDX AND SD-WAN?

The old networking hub-and-spoke model has served us well, but will it continue to effective in a world where worker mobility and technology flexibility are critical? Not necessarily.

The software-defined movement (SDx), where various functions and capabilities formerly hardware-based are now decoupled from the physical layer and managed via software, is presenting itself as a capable and attractive replacement. SD-WAN turns your wide area network (not just the datacentre) into a software-enabled and managed environment. One that can run over consumer broadband if desired and does not require dedicated MPLS links.

Importantly, SD-WAN supports the broader industry change as workloads are increasingly located in private and public clouds and not always in company office locations.

WHY IS IT A FUTURE FOUNDATION FOR THE WORKPLACE?

There are many reasons TRA believes SDx and SD-WAN will be a pillar technology. Some of the main reasons are:

• SDx and SD-WAN offer far more agile approach to managing your connectivity across a wide area than traditional approaches. It allows faster changes and additions to your environment including setting up new project sites or IoT initiatives.

• SDx and SD-WAN provide you with more granular information on your network and user behaviour. Analytics should improve at the same time as simplifying the network.

SD-WAN does truly allow organisations to deliver the promise of “work is something you do, not a place you go” and balances employee flexibility with the need for strong security.

• It allows better segmentation of networks and provides quality of service (QoS). This is important when you have increasingly diverse applications and data being consumed from different locations.

• It is an enabler for embracing multi-cloud environments or an “edge to cloud core” approach to IT.

• Using software networking technologies improves security, matching levels of employee access to the connectivity profile of the connected user.

• A single, cohesive SD-WAN environment gives employees in branch and remote offices a better, more streamlined connectivity experience.

• IT and networking talent can automate tasks as they are now in software, while centralised management reduces travel time. This helps free up talent to work on higher value tasks.

• SD-WAN promises smarter traffic routing based on your criteria so that you can use multiple network types securely.

• It also offers scalable bandwidth on demand so you can quickly commission and decommission links for specific requirements (like backup windows or short-term project sites).

• It can provide total cost of ownership (TCO) savings in most circumstances.

SDx and SD-WAN: A foundation for the future of work


AGED CARE

Aged care is a complex industry with a significant amount of service staff and complex processes and policies that need to be adhered to. Staff members need to have real-time information relating to patients and in-care residents available at all times, and they need to be contactable at all times when they are rostered on. Everything needs to be monitored and reported on for compliance with government and industry standards.

In this environment, the wide range of bespoke systems used by aged care providers all need to be able to communicate with each other. This requires a comprehensive, secure and flexible networking design that integrates fixed-line, Wi-Fi and mobile communications. As virtual health practices evolve with remote monitoring of patients using sensors and telehealth appointments networking becomes a critical part of the health ecosystem.

EDUCATION

The education sector has unique requirements and usage patterns for network and internet access. This is due to the variety of roles needing access to the systems (educators, administrators and students) and a need for strong security and digital safety. The demand pattern is also unique with very different traffic patterns experienced during class time, recess and lunchtimes, and after school and weekends.

Most schools now have Wi-Fi systems deployed but many still struggle to understand the true utilisation and performance of their networks.

Work scenarios in play now and into the future

The recent COVID-19 pandemic caused schools across the country to have to rapidly deploy virtual learning, stressing their networks to new levels with big changes in network patterns and traffic volumes.

Those with flexible SD-WAN solutions were able to more easily adapt to these changes and re-configure their networks to prioritise traffic for online learning and maximise use of their existing network bandwidth before needing to increase capacity and costs.


EMERGENCY SERVICES

Emergency services depend on reliable communications between multiple parties, often in difficult to access and remote environments. Staff in control centres need to be able to communicate with first responders in the field, even if they are operating in remote locations.

SD-WAN is a key solution that can support these complex multi-technology environments. Deploying SD-WAN allows traffic to be routed across different network links depending on availability and priority and can use fibre, microwave, NBN, radio, satellite and 4G links.

Importantly, SD-WAN means traffic can be configured to do this automatically based on network availability, capacity and quality in real-time, ensuring communications can continue even when some links may not be available.

CONSTRUCTION

The construction industry relies on a huge number of independent contractors, so efficient communication, scheduling and organisation are key to delivering successful projects. Mobile technologies dominate and the need for simple, consumer style applications is key.

Real-time communication between contractors needs to be easily facilitated including links to IoT sensors that can detect safety issues such as workers not wearing hard hats in a hard-hat zone, and, in the event of an incident, the ability to automatically alert anyone within the nearby area.

Work scenarios in play now and into the future


Are they a member of www.mef.net?

This industry body is developing industry-wide standards (MEF 70) for SD-WAN to define minimum performance attributes and allow connectivity between different providers and technologies.

Can their solution utilise a broad range of networking technologies e.g. MPLS, NBN, satellite, 4G/5G?

This allows flexibility of design, which is especially important where staff are working or located remotely, and with large branch-office environments.

Can they provide links to the major public cloud providers (e.g. AWS, Azure, Google)?

Native or direct connectivity to cloud providers is key to delivering high quality, fast access to applications and data for employees.

Does the solution have advanced management, automation and orchestration capabilities?

Can you easily set application performance priorities, quickly change locations, add or drop link providers, onboard new applications and get alerts on network health application performance?

Does the provider offer key security features as well as integration with industry security products?

Security is a crucial part of an SD-WAN solution and an integrated approach is key to simplifying operations. Security features should include traffic visibility, policy controls, and protection against direct threats and attacks.

Can the vendor provide the solution as an end-to-end managed service?

For many customers, a fully managed, secure network allows resources to be freed up to focus on other core activities without worrying about network outages and security issues.

SD-WAN solutions are seeing fast adoption in the Australian market as a practical enabler of the

industry-specific requirements outlined above.

This also means there is a wide range of companies purporting to be able to deliver SD-WAN services and, unfortunately, the quality of offerings and long-term viability of the providers vary greatly.

Below are some of the key questions to ask any potential solution provider about their SD-WAN solutions:

Checklist


Vertel is a wholly owned, Australian national telecommunications carrier with over 40 years’ experience delivering critical network infrastructure and services to enterprise, government and service provider organisations. With a broad range of fixed and mobile network and cloud services, underpinned by excellence in delivery and ongoing operations, we specialise in serving customers with high availability, performance, management and security requirements for business, mission and life-critical operations. As the world’s first wireless carrier to achieve MEF certification for its Ethernet Layer 2 service, we can design, build and deliver carrier-grade connectivity and applications for organisations throughout Australia.

www.vertel.com.au

ABOUT TECH RESEARCH ASIA:

TRA is a fast-growing IT analyst, research, and consulting firm with an experienced and diverse team across Asia Pacific. We advise executive technology buyers and suppliers across Asia Pacific. We are rigorous, fact-based, open, and transparent. And we offer research, consulting, engagement and advisory services. We also conduct our own independent research on the issues, trends, and strategies that are important to executives and other leaders that want to leverage the power of modern technology.

www.techresearch.asia

Copyright and Quotation Policy: The Tech Research Asia name and published materials are subject

to trademark and copyright protection, regardless of source. Use of this research and content for

an organisation’s internal purposes is acceptable given appropriate attribution to Tech Research

Asia. For further information on acquiring rights to use Tech Research Asia research and content

please contact us via our website or directly. Disclaimer: You accept all risks and responsibility

for losses, damages, costs and other consequences resulting directly or indirectly from using this

research document and any information or material available from it. To the maximum permitted by

law, Tech Research Asia excludes all liability to any person arising directly or indirectly from using

this research and content and any information or material available from it. This report is provided

for information purposes only. It is not a complete analysis of every material fact respecting any

technology, company, industry, security or investment. Opinions expressed are subject to change

without notice. Statements of fact have been obtained from sources considered reliable, but no

representation is made by Tech Research Asia or any of its affiliates as to their completeness or

accuracy.

© 2019-20. All rights reserved

ABOUT VERTEL

a guide to the role technology will play moving forward...a tech research asia report whitepaper...

Documents