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The ongoing chip shortage is impacting businesses across the spectrum. This has forced organisations to rethink how they design infrastructure, and to consider a move to cloud infrastructure, which does not rely so heavily on scarce hardware.
There can be little doubt that the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us, and may well be for some time to come. One of its most notable impacts has been on supply chains, particularly those providing semiconductor chips. Although COVID is not the only cause of this chip shortage, the overwhelming need to buy electronics to facilitate remote work during the lockdowns has certainly played a role. Trade tensions between the US and China exacerbated the crisis and the clear disruption to global supply chains, created by both the disease and the lockdowns designed to combat it, only made things worse.
Equipment needs are changing
Since the chip shortage is unlikely to be resolved any time soon, organisations need to think on their feet to develop plans to mitigate the effects of the shortage. One of the most obvious options is to move your network, vital data centre operations and other urgent workloads into the cloud.
According to the Insight Intelligent Technology Report 2022, some 91% of IT decision makers claim to have been impacted by the ongoing IT supply chain disruption. Furthermore, some 43% note that they are avoiding last-minute, ad-hoc purchases, 42% are focused on improving their forecasting capabilities to get more long-term visibility into their equipment needs, and 44% say that they plan to shift processing to the cloud.
This is a good move, for a number of reasons. To begin with, seeking out cloud or as-a-service models means you can lease hardware on an as-you-need-it basis. This, in turn, will afford you the opportunity to alleviate the pressure caused by chip shortages.
After all, cloud providers leverage virtualised and multi-tenant systems, which are far better than standard data centres when it comes to sharing chip-based resources. In fact, we can probably expect the shortage to lead to both increased innovation and more provider control of other components that make up cloud services, such as networking equipment.
Building purpose driven networks
This is where Ruckus fits into the picture, as we build and deliver purpose-driven networks that perform in the tough environments of the industries we serve. In today’s ‘new normal’, we understand that the hybrid workforce has become the de facto standard, and any remote workforce requires a network that is secure, scalable and adaptable, and which can support a safe and productive work environment.
Cloud-based networks offer numerous advantages, not the least of which is the ability to apply analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to enable organisations with complex networks to proactively improve their users’ experience.
The use of AI and analytics in this manner will accelerate troubleshooting, provide comprehensive network visibility and identify service-related issues, according to level of severity. This, in fact, illustrates the power of Ruckus Analytics - namely, its ability to automatically detect network incidents without any human intervention.
Ability to leapfrog is just round the corner
This is critical in today’s world, as modern businesses simply do not have the time or the budget to focus on anything outside of their core business. With a cloud-based network, however, they can rest assured that they will have a secure, scalable and robust infrastructure in place to support their core focus.
And if all of the above wasn’t reason enough to consider moving to a cloud-based network, then consider this: the cloud is the foundation on which digital transformation is built. Moving to the cloud now will position your business on a platform that will enable you to keep focusing on growing your business and driving innovation. And while you would have sweated your assets for longer – once supply catches up with demand, and momentum starts, all those refreshes that were put on hold means that a large portion of the market will be able to leapfrog and spearhead new technology, bypassing older iterations – placing them at the bleeding edge.
It is time to rethink network priorities now, for tomorrow.
This post and content is sponsored, written and provided by Ruckus Networks.
