In our latest episode of the WAN Manager Podcast, we dig into sourcing. Our listeners know that we often discuss the migration of large enterprises away from one or two global suppliers for a mostly MPLS network to a novel mix of transport types and suppliers. This is especially true due to changing trends in cloud migration, SD-WAN, and security.
Our data shows that a majority of enterprises have more than one IaaS provider. For SaaS, that number can be dozens, hundreds, even more. And most have moved the majority of their data centers off corporate premises to some kind of shared facility.
This means most companies are dealing with multi-cloud connectivity in some shape or form; WAN managers of course have to handle that from a performance and cost perspective.
What can we say about this month's roundup of recommended telecom reads?
We've got a brilliant BBC review of recent content provider cable investments. We dabble in the latest satellite news. We begin the 6G discourse. We even sprinkle in a little submarine cable TikTok, as a treat.
Today seems like a good day to unveil our 2021 Submarine Cable Map, don't you agree?
We often say that we'll be taking a "deep dive" into an issue at the beginning of our WAN Manager Podcasts. Today we almost mean that literally, as Greg welcomes TeleGeography Research Director Alan Mauldin to talk about submarine cables.
We're going back to the middle. The middle mile, that is.
Like many telecom terms, this is one that you might have to follow up with “what exactly do you mean by that?”
What's everyone been reading this month?
The average enterprise network had MPLS running at 82% of sites in 2018. That fell to just 58% in 2020. About one-third of those networks have active backups for their MPLS service—a quarter of them have passive backups.
Looking at these numbers, we have to ask: what role will MPLS play in the WAN moving forward?
There's plenty happening along the critical Europe-East Asia subsea route.
Senior Manager Jon Hjembo recently treated the Transport Networks Russia & CIS Conference to a virtual presentation on all things Europe-East Asia backbone transport, highlighting big developments and persistent trends in the region.
Surging demand for bandwidth and higher quality end-user experiences— of both the human and droid variety—continues unabated. This trend puts intense pressure on ICPs and network operators to maximize submarine network spectral and returns on limited submerged assets.
Join Ciena’s Brian Lavallée and our own Alan Mauldin on May 4 at 11 a.m. ET for a live discussion on this topic.
