Networking trends in 2022 from Itential

A recent Itential report shows that only 34% of network management professionals are completely satisfied with the tools and processes they use for network configuration management, a tumultuous setup for the year ahead. Peter Sprygada, Vice President of Product Management at Itential shares his 2022 predictions and some prominent networking trends to look out for.

2022 Will Not Need Anymore Network Heroes

There will be an increasing need to empower network engineers to move past “hero” culture and drive value by using new and innovative cloud technologies

Over the past few years, C-Suite executives and high-level directors have struggled to tie their business goals to investments in internal infrastructure management, and as a result, stunted the modernization of their IT/engineering departments. With network engineers still operating under the same mindset as when they first entered the industry, they’ve continued to value their contributions based on individual commands (serving as modern-day heroes by resolving IT issues on a case-by-case basis) versus utilizing evolving new strategies.

Networking trends in 2022

In 2022, network engineers will be encouraged to embrace innovative cloud programs/technologies as part of their “value-driving” contributions, which will grow closer in line with overall business success.

5G will allow enterprises to push further to the network edge.

The spread of 5G will further shift the focus of enterprise investments away from centralized architectures

As 5G networking becomes more widespread, enterprises are looking to embrace the opportunity to push their applications further to the edge of the network, allowing them to realize enhanced performance and new monetization models. Network modernization initiatives serve to provide the foundation for enterprises to expand their application capabilities, push services closer to end-users, and optimize service delivery performance. In order for these initiatives to be successful, enterprises are shifting away from manual processes in order to fully embrace 5G technology through the expansion of advanced capabilities like automation and network slicing.

Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Networking will Require a Horizontal Approach

Horizontal investments across organizations must become a priority for a successful transition to cloud-based infrastructures

When investing in new IT infrastructures, IT leaders typically build up their modernization programs “vertically” within each department. However, this creates a gap between teams, as each is operating in separate models and functionalities, driving up unnecessary costs and inefficient business practices. Looking towards 2022, IT leaders will be focused on successfully aligning their hybrid and multi-cloud initiatives for increased operational efficiency. In doing so, more must lean towards a “horizontal” approach, uprooting traditional processes across all departments, and deploying cloud-native tools on a wider organizational scale to reduce time and stress.