5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Network
Nitel: Featured Partner
5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Network
The U.S. economy is an ever-changing, ecosystem that effects the lives of every American as well as many people around the globe. Its complexity and magnitude make it difficult to predict even for people who devote their lives to the pursuit of doing just that. But if you have read a newspaper any time in the last year or so, you would have seen countless articles quoting people “in the know” – economists, politicians, heads of prominent banking institutions – predicting hard times ahead for the economy. Depending on who you listen to, you might hear “bear market,” “economic downturn,” or even the dreaded “R Word” – Recession.
There’s not a single industry that doesn’t get affected in some way from a recession. Yes, some are affected more than others. In 2008, it was the housing market. In 2001, the dot-com bubble burst, sending investors running from any business that had anything to do with the internet. So as we brace ourselves for the next phase of the natural ebb & flow of the economy, what can IT leaders do to make sure their networks continue to support the needs of their users, customers and vendors?
1. Review Your Contracts
When your business is in growth mode, things tend to move fast. Opening a new location? Line up your connectivity. Adding more employees, capabilities, and applications? More bandwidth asap! Any time you add new services or change existing ones, there’s a good chance your contract start and end dates will diverge from each other. Also, provider contracts typically contain language that specifies what happens at the end of your initial term. The service could go month-to-month, or it could renew for some period of time. Depending on how the economy affects your business, you may need to make changes to your network. This could mean ratcheting down bandwidth or even shutting down entire locations. Having a handle on what your contractual obligations are will speed up and simplify making any changes, should the need arise.
2. Consolidate Vendors
The negative effects of vendor sprawl can be an issue in any economic climate. But in tough times, those effects can be magnified. Across the board, IT teams tend to be stretched incredibly thin. A bloated vendor portfolio makes network management and upkeep that much more difficult.
While network diversity is, no doubt, important to a high-performing, resilient network, some providers can deliver a best-of-both-worlds scenario. These providers can offer multiple network technologies leveraging various underlying vendors while consolidating billing, maintenance and vendor management under a single umbrella.
3. Phase out Outdated Technology
It may seem counterintuitive to take on a network upgrade project as the economy seems to be slowing down but depending on what you have today, it might just make sense. Wide area network technologies, particularly those using SD-WAN, offer advantages over older technologies like MPLS. Not only does SD-WAN enable greater flexibility to scale the network, it also makes good use of less expensive connections like broadband or even wireless when SLA-based connections are unnecessary. They’re also better at managing failover, which is always a smart thing to consider.
4. Take Advantage of the Cloud
If you hadn’t noticed, everything is moving to the cloud! And there are many good reasons for it. Better security, flexibility, reliability, and simplified updates are just a few. But one recurring theme is that, generally speaking, cloud services require less management. Gone are the days of maintaining hardware in a data center, upgrading software and troubleshooting compatibility and integration issues. With the possibility of IT resources becoming more scarce, eliminating some of these responsibilities to keep your applications running is attractive.
5. Take Inventory of Your Tech Stack
According to a 2021 study, the average company uses 254 applications. Surprisingly, only 45% of these applications are being used on a regular basis. Keeping tabs on what applications your organization is using is a critical part of effectively managing IT costs. In an economic downturn, budgets need to be managed more tightly than ever as businesses look for ways to trim excess cost.
With potential tough times ahead, IT leaders have numerous ways to prepare their business and infrastructure. While we all hope for minimal impact to our industries, businesses and families, a proactive approach to managing your network and your IT environment can put your organization in a better position to weather the storm.
This content was created with Jason Borkowicz and our friends over at Nitel. I’ve personally utilized this company with great success in my work. If you have multiple locations and you need a single bill, with support that’s superior to the mega-carriers, you might want to consider this option. They can also layer in additional managed services to operationalize a portion of your networking needs.