For IT professionals, the pace of change they must monitor, manage, assure and secure is accelerating.

At a high level, certain inexorable trends are sweeping enterprises. These include consumerization, mobility, virtualization, and if, when and how to move what to the cloud. As more and more of mission critical capabilities go online, the nature of work and the skills of a digitally adept workforce are driving ever greater reliance on the “Infostructure” — the hardware, software, apps and services used for communications, collaboration and business process optimization.

In addition, the tools used by employees now include the exploding population of bring your own device (BYOD) users and their multimedia applications. This has added a level of complexity to IT management because of these consumption of computing and communications resources and the increased risks they pose. How to properly manage these devices in a way that provides great experiences without compromising enterprise security has become a pressing and present problem.

What all of this means for IT is increased pressure to accommodate change, comply with a growing number of rules and regulations, and please users, who include upper management, who expects their smartphones and tablets to work flawlessly, and do so in a way that is:

• Secure
• Mitigates risks
• High-performance
• Cost-effective

The challenge has been that traditional networks are not capable of delivering what the new world requires where table stakes are to deliver any service, any content or any application to all workers at any time.

The need to provide 360 degree multiple media and multimedia access around the clock and world to an increasingly diverse universe of communications-aware devices in an environment where traffic has become unpredictable, has created a watershed moment for organizations of every size. They must determine the readiness of their networks to work as hard and as well as they need to. This must be done for a “new normal” that is anything but.

Not to be cute, but “E”verything needs to be re-evaluated in the context of how to sustain a high-quality end user experiences in an operating reality where: traffic bursts can happen at any time; nomadic devices and the people who use them and the applications they run need to be discreetly monitored and managed; and, everything converges into an all-IP network that is designed to be ready for whatever the future holds.

In the new normal, assurance of high-quality communications and interoperability must be a top level consideration. 

As networks continue to migrate to all-IP to accommodate the data demands of the on-rush consumerization, mobility and virtualization, as noted, getting one’s arms around the best ways to connect traditional and new IT resources, as well as connecting BYOD workers and their devices to the corporate network, is dictating new approaches.

Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) (ALU) has proposed a new solution to address these challenges with the concept of an Application Fluent Network. They have worked with the Tolly Group to identify key functionalities of the network to validate the Application Fluent Network solution meets the challenges of providing a high-quality user experience while reducing costs.

The results of the ALU collaboration with the Tolly Group, and lessons learned, will be the topic of a webinar, “Prepare Your Network for the Multi-media & BYOD Revolution,” to be held Thursday, June 28 at 11:00AM EDT. 

Topics to be covered include:

• How to deploy a resilient network that sustains quality real time application delivery even in the event of failures
• Details on a new approach to a network infrastructure that recognizes the users and devices connected, and dynamically self-adjusts in order to provide a quality user experience in synch with business priorities
• Best practices to simplify operations and reduce cost

Your organizations may already be grappling with how best to not just accommodate but leverage the BYOD trend. If not now you certainly will be soon. Understanding how to make your network BYOD and the multimedia app friendly is a secure, cost-effective manner in terms of IT professional “to-do lists” is no longer a question if but when. Find out how best to assure network readiness for the new normal and the challenges and opportunities it presents.