The network, research firm Gartner tells us, will become smarter in the next year, software will displace hardware infrastructure in importance, and the need for customer control will drive network and services growth. Networking, according to Gartner, is no longer about basic connectivity and transport. It looks like good old Sun Microsystems got it right – the network is the computer, as its famous tagline states. So, now that the network is the computer, how well, exactly, is your network able to handle its new role in the spotlight?

Says Dimension Data CTO Ettienne Reynecke: “We’re seeing several trends across the globe, and the network is foundational to companies participating in any of them. Virtualisation, consolidation, globalisation and so on, all impacts the network. It’s no longer about the technology. This isn’t a new statement, but for the first time, we’re seeing network people getting this: it’s about the business outcome. This is a subtle change we’ve started seeing as the market has matured.”