Is legacy IT infrastructure throttling your digital success?

Your business is constantly looking for new ways to better engage, excite and serve their customers with digital technologies. But it's very likely that current IT infrastructure is limiting your potential.

Riverbed's Digital Performance Survey 2018 found that 83 per cent of business decision-makers recognise that digital experience is more critical to the bottom line than it was three years ago.

But there's a major gap between digital aspirations and digital performance, with 70 per cent reporting critical digital services and applications are failing. For many businesses this is hurting productivity and ruining customer experiences multiple times a month.

In an environment where customers are fickle, and even short periods of poor digital experience can have massive impact to a company's bottom line, it's tempting to look for a quick fix that will keep everything running.

With the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) now in full swing, Australians are consuming more digital content than ever. We've been led to believe that extra bandwidth will help solve our network woes.

If history is anything to go by, our hunger for rich digital content is only likely to grow as we embrace the NBN and new digital technologies. Network capacity will continue to be put under great pressure but simply boosting network capacity is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg. It's not the long-term solution you need.

It's a common problem. Businesses are trying to deliver richer services and experiences using the same technologies used to run networks five or even 10 years ago. Although networking needs are very different now, many businesses are still running systems on outdated technology infrastructure.

Build on strong foundations

Your network is the foundation upon which all innovations and services are built. Without a strong network, the other technology used by your business will suffer performance issues.

A growing number of Australian business decision-makers realise it's time to change. They know outdated technology infrastructure is a key barrier to achieving digital success, alongside lack of visibility and budget constraints.

These issues are creating a sense of urgency in modernising networks and using the right tools to measure the digital experience of customers and employees. It's impossible to make improvements until you understand the problem.

The most innovative Australian organisations, who are well placed to lead their competitors, are replacing outdated networks with next-generation, software-defined-wide area network (SD-WAN) architectures. SD-WAN is agile and future-proofed. It provides greater security, less latency and faster troubleshooting.

SD-WAN coupled with real-time network management platforms empower you to better manage your environments and applications, translating to better overall user experiences.

Upgrading your infrastructure will also give you a competitive advantage when introducing new technologies. You'll no longer be chasing your tail trying to ensure your network is up to speed. In successfully delivering the next-generation of application performance, you'll significantly improve customer experiences, increase productivity and deliver cost savings.

A historical reliance on bandwidth has created resistance to change. If you want to succeed in this digital age, you need to play the long game.