We're back with a bonus holiday episode of the podcast! In this special episode, Greg invites TeleGeography Analyst Elizabeth Thorne to look back at the WAN in 2020. (And what a year it was.)
She comes armed with a preview of data the team collected throughout 2020 for our annual WAN Manager Survey. The dynamic duo then gets to talking about the biggest COVID-19 challenges reported by WAN managers and how 2020 will impact the WAN moving forward.
Enjoy the full episode below.
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Prior to the pandemic, only about 3.6% of the workforce was full-time remote. However, a survey conducted by TeleGeography found that 85% of responding companies had the majority of their workforce go almost completely remote.
The most common configuration observed was approximately 80% of workers being remote, with the remaining 20% at job sites. This sudden shift required companies to rapidly increase data center bandwidth, with over 50% of survey takers increasing their data center bandwidth in the immediate days and weeks following forced shutdowns.
The readiness for this shift varied, with some companies facing challenges like not having enough VPN licenses or needing to purchase new devices. The ability to maintain business continuity despite this rapid transition was seen as a testament to existing infrastructure, particularly the virtualization of firewalls and VPNs and the move of applications to the cloud.
With a significant portion of the workforce connecting from residential locations, WAN managers face issues beyond their direct control, as they cannot call a carrier and enforce an SLA for an employee's home internet.
Companies have explored various strategies to address this, including employee education on troubleshooting connectivity issues and encouraging broadband upgrades. Some companies are even considering or already paying for employees' business or improved broadband connections, a surprising finding from their survey. This shift in thinking about business expenses is partly driven by companies saving money on office costs (heating, lighting, power, internet) while employees bear these costs at home.
While MPLS numbers haven't drastically changed in terms of the number of sites connected, there's a shift in how it's used.
More companies are moving away from using passive or active MPLS ports for backup connections, instead utilizing alternative options, often facilitated by SD-WAN.
The need for remote workers to access cloud-based applications, especially with the adoption of zero trust security models, makes direct internet access viable and potentially accelerates the move away from MPLS, particularly when sites are no longer heavily populated.
For some companies, especially agile tech or software companies with minimal on-premises architecture, the radical idea of employees connecting directly to cloud resources via the internet, authenticated through remote access solutions, is becoming a possibility. This suggests a potential evolution in what a corporate network looks like, although the viability for true global enterprises, particularly regarding global backbone needs, remains a question.