"More organisations will start seeking intelligent and intent-based networks that offer integrated security"

Srinivasan CR, Chief Digital Officer, Tata Communications

"Even before the events of 2020, cloud had already established its value for many businesses by providing improved agility, scalability, and cost efficiencies across industries. The technology is helping add a layer of resilience to many organisations by making the sudden shifts in working habits less disruptive. Businesses will focus more on managing their cloud costs better and look to unify their different cloud environments. Cloud will also grow in popularity as the ideal execution venue for new and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), blockchain, and edge computing. 

This new normal will put new pressures on companies, as there will be increasing need for networks capable of supporting hybrid architectures - be it cloud, on premises, or edge computing. As a result, I predict more organisations will start seeking intelligent and intent-based networks that offer integrated security - such as SD-WAN for the WAN with SASE and Zero Trust security or virtual networks for multicloud - to deal with the increased cybersecurity threat of their new perimeter-less ecosystem. Similarly, the need to also improve customer experience (CX) will accompany the increased digitsation of businesses. 

With more 5G rollouts expected in 2021, along with further growth in LP-WAN-based services, the amount of data created and handled by businesses is set to skyrocket. So, to differentiate themselves from the competition, more companies will start focusing on data analytics technology capable of securely handling information as well as analysing and deriving greater insights from their mostly unused operational data.”