Growth in cloud over the last three years has been phenomenal. It has changed the enterprise IT landscape and is finally driving change in global networks. And as cloud growth continues to rise, enterprises need new and innovative models for connecting their cloud services.
Research firm Gartner expects that global spending on infrastructure as a service (IaaS) reached almost $16.5 billion in 2015, an increase of 32.8% from 2014, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2014 to 2019 forecast at 29.1%.
The traditional networking model is simply not fast enough to keep up with a cloud ecosystem moving this quickly. Traditional networking can no longer match the needs or expectations of enterprises that are rapidly adopting cloud services. For too long networking has lacked the agility, flexibility, stability, and visibility that cloud services require.
Cloud-based applications are only as good as an enterprise’s ability to connect to them. Traditional models rely on slow manual procurement processes that mean enterprises have to wait to connect their cloud services. Typically, this involves emails and spreadsheets being exchanged between enterprises and their suppliers with long wait timers until the service is actually available. Demands within the enterprise can change but the network isn’t ready to immediately respond to these changes.
Similarly, long inflexible contracts lock enterprises in for years, making it difficult to adjust or scale their services. This hurts an enterprise’s ability to realise the benefits and efficiencies of cloud services.;
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