< Previousnetworking predictions www.networkseuropemagazine.com 20 At the time of writing, and with lockdown 3.0 across Europe putting hopes of a swift return to an in-office environment on hold, businesses must continue to support remote workforces and shift further toward a work-from-anywhere model. Having a strong and scalable network will therefore play a critical role in business success in 2021. Connecting every individual, device and organisational structure across the digital enterprise and becoming the foundation for a new post-pandemic culture. With this in mind, here are our Five Networking Predictions for 2021 and a benchmark for how organisations must continue to adapt in uncertain times: 1 Continued consolidation of the SD-WAN market COVID-19 has increased the importance of how we manage and operate networks for remote work. As a result, many smaller SD-WAN players are now facing growing market pressures to enter acquisition deals with larger enterprises and support the greater demand for capacity, latency and instant applications. Furthermore, we anticipate big vendors such as Cisco, Juniper and HPE will capitalise on the opportunities with existing customers, buying up smaller players that can no longer compete. In doing so, they will expand their roster of SD-WAN features and existing service subscriptions to their customer base. 2 The rise of predictive operations Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have played a critical role in visibility, performance and network monitoring. We expect to see businesses continue to invest in and capitalise on data analytics and the benefits of automation. Particularly in sectors like security, where AI, ML and real-time analytics is crucial to identifying and mitigating threats against the network. Networking predictions COVID-19 forced enterprises to accelerate digital transformation in a matter of weeks, rather than months or years. As the world embraced a new way of working, overhauling business processes and transforming services to deliver value to customers and employees became a top priority. Colette Kitterhing Senior Director UK&I Riverbed Technologynetworking predictions www.networkseuropemagazine.com 21 As 2021 unfolds, the predictive power of AI and ML will also be used in operational purposes. In a combined approach, AI-enhanced security and operational capabilities will give businesses the ability to both recognise existing breaches, but also predict faults and threats before they happen, thereby determining how they are likely to evolve over time. Taking this one step further, we anticipate predictive analysis and rank analysis will come together. Allowing businesses to rank predictions based on their likelihood and adjusting their operations and resources accordingly, to protect their most valuable asset: data. 3 The fall of static development 2021 will be the year we begin to fully embrace the concept of work from anywhere, especially when it comes to developing and implementing new technology. Increasingly, we will see developers embed remote working scenarios into their code and leave static development behind. Gravitating toward the anywhere and remote user as their primary development environment. This will allow developers to make notable advances in securing the working from anywhere network and adapt their thinking to accommodate the reality that every endpoint has become a microbranch. Thus finding new scenarios that optimise the capabilities of the user while also ensuring that new applications and services can be managed by IT from a single point of control. 4 The rise of cross-vendor visibility Having full visibility over the network is crucial to troubleshooting issues, managing capacity and maximising user experience, especially with a remote workforce. This will continue and be a vital component of a work-from-anywhere world in 2021. But as companies embrace visibility and network performance management tools, they will start to look beyond their own applications. Instead, they will develop solutions that offer visibility into other vendors’ applications. This will give businesses cross-vendor visibility and a complete picture over their entire IT estate, regardless of the application or software being used within the network, therefore allowing businesses to quickly solve problems, maintain productivity and support their workforce through uncertain times. 5 Prioritising application performance Application performance will be a priority for businesses as they strive to maintain productivity and employee connectivity across the workforce. But how the network delivers and handles applications has changed. As greater demand is placed on applications and pressure to fix slow running solutions increases, organisations will turn to client-to-cloud acceleration. They will do so to optimise performance from the data centre to employee home devices. A year of change 2021 is set to be the year where the remote workforce settles, the world embraces new dynamic operational models, visibility is achieved across networks, and application performance is a necessity. More than 61% of leaders are set to make additional technology investments in the next 12 months, according to the Riverbed Future of Work survey. In doing so, we will see organisations across the globe innovate, accelerate and develop from end-to-end, continuing to lead their workforce through uncertain times and achieve success and growth in 2021. We are excited to see organisations realise the benefits of smarter network management and performance acceleration solutions over the next 12 months. n Networking predictions22 looking back Looking back over 2020: data centre and edge computing predictions looking back www.networkseuropemagazine.com 23 For the IT sector in general, and for the data centre industry in particular, the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic caused a significant refocus of digital transformation objectives. One that without fundamentally changing the general direction of the industry, certainly accelerated some existing trends, and reinforced the need for greater visibility of distributed, critical infrastructure systems. As digitisation becomes a key priority in public spaces, such as in retail and public transport, there has already been a shift towards automation and disruption. With the emergence of self-service kiosks in fast- food restaurants, at supermarket checkouts and in petrol stations, for example, the implications of the pandemic have reinforced the need for digital technologies that steer society towards a more touch- free, contactless mode of operation. Although contactless payments from credit cards and Apple Pay are already familiar features, we expect that many touch-screen kiosks will soon be phased out, and will be replaced by new forms of contactless interaction. This may be based on pre-ordered items from a phone, from scanning menus in restaurants, or via high-definition video to recognise motion or personal features. Nonetheless, smarter features, such as contact tracing to limit the spread of the Covid virus, will likely be built into retail and public transport systems, as well as in many building management systems (BMS). The surge in edge and remote monitoring For the data centre and IT sectors, all of these developments will further drive the growth of edge computing, as the demand for local transactions will force more and more data processing to the periphery - close to where the data is created, processed and consumed. Further up the chain, this will have implications for both infrastructure deployments and remote management. In the former case, the rollout of business- critical IT systems at the edge will require Looking back over 2020: data centre and edge computing predictions Steven Carlini Vice President of Innovation and Data Centre Schneider Electric When asked what was most likely to cause a change in a government’s direction, a famous British Prime Minister once famously answered: “Events, dear boy!” An unscheduled, if not entirely unforeseen, occurrence of sufficient magnitude will always cause a realignment of priorities and force actions along a different path to what was intended. looking back www.networkseuropemagazine.com 24 that the systems are quick to deploy, easy to maintain and manageable from remote control centres. Accessibility has been a key challenge for many businesses and sectors throughout the year, so critical IT equipment located in areas with few technical support staff must be robust, secure and easy to service. The effects of the pandemic also brought to the fore the issue of data centre remote monitoring and management. As the ever-changing situation forced large numbers of people to work from home, the demands placed on data centres, energy grids and digital connectivity networks only increased. Many operators realised that, although they may have had some kind of on-premise DCIM or remote monitoring system in place, it may not have been sufficient to provide the level of visibility that was needed. Many companies have therefore realised a greater need for improved visibility of the data centre’s electrical and mechanical assets, as well as insight into what’s happening in the IT room. As we look forward, I believe this will only become more crucial, and the need to monitor your infrastructure from anywhere, or securely on any device will only increase. Here the deployment of next-generation or vendor-agnostic DCIM will see a surge. As the demand for 5G accelerates, the issue of energy efficiency or sustainability at the edge becomes paramount. While it has become more important to have visibility across edge environments, now operators must also ensure that pre-integrated power, cooling and IT systems operate efficiently. loooking back www.networkseuropemagazine.com 25 The need for a sustainable edge For deployment at the edge, a focus on standardisation is crucial. This is the best way to keep costs down, exploit economies of scale, improve speed of deployment, and simplify the tasks of servicing and remote monitoring. In practice, there will be a significant increase in micro data centre deployments to support geographically dispersed edge applications. For the most part, it is likely they will remain multipurpose systems, due to a lack of a compelling business case for single-application installations. Furthermore, as the demand for 5G accelerates, the issue of energy efficiency or sustainability at the edge becomes paramount. While it has become more important to have visibility across edge environments, now operators must also ensure that pre-integrated power, cooling and IT systems operate efficiently. This not only offers users a lower operating cost via reduced energy usage and with it, a far lower carbon output, but it enables them to manage the performance of the network, servers and workloads more efficiently. In the data centre sector, we expect to see some ramp- up of liquid-cooled systems although it is likely that for now at least, it will remain a niche area - predominantly used in high-performance computing or supercomputing applications, OCP-Ready colocation data centres and in high-density edge environments. There are obvious advantages of liquid cooling in terms of sustainability, with some studies showing greater energy efficiency and CapEx savings of up to 14%. Yet the complexity of deploying liquid-cooled solutions in legacy facilities, compared with air cooling, is an inhibiting factor. We expect to see liquid-cooling continuing to be deployed in individual racks for niche applications, rather than seeing entire facilities equipped. However, as with other infrastructure, as the industry figures out a way to standardise and create liquid cooling facilities to scale, it could be a winner in the medium term. 5G and hyperscale demands With many construction projects now well underway again, we expect to see continued growth across the full spectrum of data centre service provision - from colocation providers all the way to the hyperscale community. With hyperscalers now becoming known as the ‘core of the network’, we expect to see service providers reacting to the movement of more processing at the edge by re-engaging their sights on storage at the core. Here, the market will continue to segment between “hot”, or frequently accessed data, and “cold” storage for archived information that is less business-critical. It is likely that there will also be different pricing models applied to each. The disruption this year has also affected much of the anticipated rollout of 5G communications. In reality, most carriers have been rolling out low-band 5G, operating at about 600MHz, which is similar in performance to 4G, rather than the GHz spectrums offered by higher band 5G. In 2021 we expect to see 5G emerging in more industrial applications in private networks, where large companies can operate at whatever part of the spectrum they like and use the technology to increase performance, productivity and avail of compute-intensive applications like AI and Robotic Processing Automation (RPA). In the public domain, we expect to see a significant increase of 5G deployments as a “last-mile” solution to bring “fibre-quality” 5G connectivity to the home. This has the obvious advantage of making high-speed connectivity available to areas not currently served by fibre in a cost- effective way, and one that is far quicker to deploy. As we look forward, it is crucial that our sector remains agile and focused on adapting to ever-changing times. This year has shown the determination and tenacity of data centre professionals and our role in supporting the mission-critical needs of customers who are dependent on digital infrastructure. nHPC predictions www.networkseuropemagazine.com 26 The arrival of eastern hyperscalers Today London is one of the largest data centre hubs in the world, attracting some of the tech sector’s most influential brands to the country. Over the past decade the UK colocation market has become increasingly dominated by the US hyperscale providers, and whilst these companies will continue to build on their established footprints, in 2021 we will also see further inroads made by Chinese providers, such as Tencent and Alibaba. As a key global destination for data centre and cloud services, the UK offers a strategic gateway to Europe, yet the Eastern hyperscale communities have traditionally been under-served here. The Hyperscaler prerequisites of space to scale, abundant renewable power and access to market-leading cloud connectivity will generate strong interest for providers offering Built-To-Suit services. Operators who can deliver scalable, secure bespoke facilities, with an established talent pool and experienced engineering team offer Eastern cloud service providers all of the key ingredients to truly gain a hold in the UK market Creation of new availability zones The London colocation market has seen continued expansion, investment and acquisition in recent years, most of which has largely been focused on the established data centre hubs and availability zones of Slough and Docklands. As these locations have become increasingly saturated and subsequently constrained in terms of suitable land and power, colocation and hyperscale providers are now being forced to look further afield to meet their growing requirements. Google recently announced that it has acquired a 33-acre site to the north of London for future development, and to the east of the city Kao Data has become the number one location of choice for high-performance colocation workloads for the Life Science and research clusters of Cambridge, as well as the surrounding UK Innovation Corridor. With the need for data centres and more importantly, the services they provide, showing no sign of abating. CBRE, for example, predicts that 2021 will be a record year for new supply, with 400MW already in or through planning for development and 85MW scheduled to come online across FLAP. As such I anticipate that a new availability zone will emerge, where east London and beyond will become a strategic location for high-performance colocation. The GPU race to ARMs Throughout 2020 HPC usage within bioinformatics and pharma has surged, and the UK has once again proved its metal as one of the world’s leading tech hubs. In Hyperscale, HPC and colocation predictions for 2021 Faisal Akram Director of Business Development Kao Data As we plan for the year ahead we will see greater changes within the sector; many will be influenced by the innovation of hyperscale providers, high-performance computing (HPC) technologies and by the OCP-Ready colocation data centres supporting them. HPC predictions www.networkseuropemagazine.com 27 fact, no greater influence has accelerated or impacted the sector this year than that made by HPC and intensive computing. The work of Pfizer, AstraZeneca and of the research universities supporting them has been paramount and will play key roles in 2021. Furthermore, through its acquisition of ARM, NVIDIA has chosen Cambridge as the location of their efforts to develop an AI Centre of Excellence. As we look forward, I believe we’ll see an arms race in the GPU market, where NVIDIA’s new DGX technologies, and a host of other manufacturers’ new announcements such as Supermicro, will continue to offer increased performance benefits for end-users at a lower cost. HPC will also no longer be seen as simply a biotechnology, research or financial markets tool. The emergence of new technologies such as the NVIDIA DGX Station A100 is making advanced processing power and the use of AI applications more easily available as companies look to incorporate these into their digital strategies. The convergence of OCP-Ready and HPC-Ready data centres Today it is extraordinary how AI, GPU and CPU technologies are influencing data centre designs. In future, I believe that facilities will be judged by their abilities to support HPC-Ready infrastructure for intensive compute. HPC data centres must offer customisable architectures, abundant power within typically +30kW racks and have the capability to remove the heat generated by the servers via the greater efficiencies offered by liquid cooling – all while supporting the increased floor loading requirements! These bare the hallmarks of OCP-Ready data centres, a term that has become synonymous for facilities that accommodate intensive computing in highly efficient, application-specific and flexible environments. Today HPC and AI organisations also require the expertise of operators who truly understand their needs, and who can implement the specific technology topography that they require. I believe those teams who have the right engineering expertise, alongside facilities built to standards of technical excellence, will find great success in 2021. The convergence of OCP-Ready and HPC-ready facilities within our sector has only just begun to emerge. Looking forward, long may it continue. n Hyperscale, HPC and colocation predictions for 2021smart predictions www.networkseuropemagazine.com 28The digital and physical world continue to converge 2020 symbolises a turning point of adaptation to digital interactions in everyday life, be it working from home, ordering groceries or online schooling. Consumers in 2021 and beyond expect to experience a seamless blend of intertwined in-person and online interactions along the customer journey. In the manufacturing world, we can expect the rapid growth of AI, IoT and other industrial automation technology, especially since human resources become less accessible and reliable. Technology’s place in the boardroom In 2020, technology proved to be a competitive advantage for some companies and a threat to the survival of others. In particular, the failure to have a genuine eCommerce presence cost many companies dearly. As a result of this, the lines between technology strategy and corporate strategy are beginning to blur. In order to survive and thrive, organisations need to assess their current tech capabilities and expand on future possibilities. Data-driven decision making To prepare for current changes and an unknown future, corporate and technology strategists need to have access to accurate data to analyse, identify trends, reduce wastage and inform their strategies. The first step in this process is accurate data collection. This is enabled by Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and networks that are able to report on virtually anything 24/7. The next step is the ability to analyse this data. Again, technology platforms with advanced analytics capabilities, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are making meaningful analytics a possibility. By using tools such as cloud-based dashboards, organisations have the ability to: • Identify internal and external strategic forces • Inform decisions • Monitor outcomes • Develop strategies continuously and dynamically Smart predictions: the connected technology that will transform 2021 Matthew Margetts Director of Sales and Marketing Smarter Technologies Although we have bid a grateful farewell to 2020, the disruption and uncertainty we experienced are spilling over into 2021. If there is one thing that we learnt last year, however, it’s that we need to accelerate the pace of transformative change. Connected technology is of critical importance in this process, and is likely to be one of the key economic drivers going forward. smart predictions www.networkseuropemagazine.com 29Next >