The rise of cloud computing has been a mixed bag for the bottom line of traditional network hardware manufacturers. Yes, there is business to be had by supplying the burgeoning cloud service providers with new hardware; however, as companies move their applications into the cloud, the elaborate WAN networks of yesteryear are slowly being phased out. The result is a decrease in sales of routers and switches, a dagger in the heart of the very growth engine that gave rise to the likes of Cisco, Juniper, and Adtran.
From a business perspective, we are pleasantly surprised to see an uptick in demand in the latter half of 2017 for bandwidth shapers. We expect this to continue on into 2018 and beyond.
Why are bandwidth shapers seeing an uptick in interest?
Prior to the rise of cloud computing , companies required large internal LAN network pipes, with relatively small connections to the Internet. As services move to the Cloud, the data that formerly traversed the local LAN is now being funneled out of the building through the pipe leading to the Internet. For the most part, companies realize this extra burden on their Internet connection and take action by buying more bandwidth. Purchasing bandwidth makes sense in markets where bandwidth is cheap, but is not always possible.
Companies are realizing they cannot afford to have gridlock into their Cloud. Network administrators understand that at any time an unanticipated spike in bandwidth demand could overwhelm their cloud connection. The ramifications of clogged cloud connections could be catastrophic to their business, especially as more business is performed online. Hence, we are getting preemptive inquiries about ensuring their cloud service will prioritize critical services across their Internet connection with a smart bandwidth shaper.
We are also getting inquiries from businesses that have fallen behind and are unable to upgrade their Internet pipe fast enough to keep up with Cloud demand. This cyclical pattern of upgrading/running out of bandwidth can be tempered by using a bandwidth shaper. As your network peaks, your bandwidth shaper can ensure that available resources are shared optimally, until you upgrade and have more bandwidth available.
Although moving to the Cloud seems to introduce a new paradigm, from the world of network optimization, the challenges are the same. Over the years we have always recommended a two-prong approach to optimization: 1) adequate bandwidth, and 2) bandwidth shaping. The reason for our recommendation continues to be the same. With bandwidth shaping, you are ensuring that you are best-positioned to handle peak traffic on your network. And now, more than ever, as business goes “online” and into the Cloud, and both your employees and your customers are on your network, bandwidth shaping is a prudent insurance policy to providing a great experience on your network.
NetEqualizer News Blog 
Cloud Computing – Do You Have Enough Bandwidth? And a Few Other Things to Consider
December 10, 2011 — netequalizerThe following is a list of things to consider when using a cloud-computing model.
Bandwidth: Is your link fast enough to support cloud computing?
We get asked this question all the time: What is the best-practice standard for bandwidth allocation?
Well, the answer depends on what you are computing.
– First, there is the application itself. Is your application dynamically loading up modules every time you click on a new screen? If the application is designed correctly, it will be lightweight and come up quickly in your browser. Flash video screens certainly spruce up the experience, but I hate waiting for them. Make sure when you go to a cloud model that your application is adapted for limited bandwidth.
– Second, what type of transactions are you running? Are you running videos and large graphics or just data? Are you doing photo processing from Kodak? If so, you are not typical, and moving images up and down your link will be your constraining factor.
– Third, are you sharing general Internet access with your cloud link? In other words, is that guy on his lunch break watching a replay of royal wedding bloopers on YouTube interfering with your salesforce.com access?
The good news is (assuming you will be running a transactional cloud computing environment – e.g. accounting, sales database, basic email, attendance, medical records – without video clips or large data files), you most likely will not need additional Internet bandwidth. Obviously, we assume your business has reasonable Internet response times prior to transitioning to a cloud application.
Factoid: Typically, for a business in an urban area, we would expect about 10 megabits of bandwidth for every 100 employees. If you fall below this ratio, 10/100, you can still take advantage of cloud computing but you may need some form of QoS device to prevent the recreational or non-essential Internet access from interfering with your cloud applications. See our article on contention ratio for more information.
Security: Can you trust your data in the cloud?
For the most part, chances are your cloud partner will have much better resources to deal with security than your enterprise, as this should be a primary function of their business. They should have an economy of scale – whereas most companies view security as a cost and are always juggling those costs against profits, cloud-computing providers will view security as an asset and invest more heavily.
We addressed security in detail in our article how secure is the cloud, but here are some of the main points to consider:
1) Transit security: moving data to and from your cloud provider. How are you going to make sure this is secure?
2) Storage: handling of your data at your cloud provider, is it secure once it gets there from an outside hacker?
3) Inside job: this is often overlooked, but can be a huge security risk. Who has access to your data within the provider network?
Evaluating security when choosing your provider.
You would assume the cloud company, whether it be Apple or Google (Gmail, Google Calendar), uses some best practices to ensure security. My fear is that ultimately some major cloud provider will fail miserably just like banks and brokerage firms. Over time, one or more of them will become complacent. Here is my check list on what I would want in my trusted cloud computing partner:
1) Do they have redundancy in their facilities and their access?
2) Do they screen their employees for criminal records and drug usage?
3) Are they willing to let you, or a truly independent auditor, into their facility?
4) How often do they back-up data and how do they test recovery?
Big Brother is watching.
This is not so much a traditional security threat, but if you are using a free service you are likely going to agree, somewhere in their fine print, to expose some of your information for marketing purposes. Ever wonder how those targeted ads appear that are relevant to the content of the mail you are reading?
Link reliability.
What happens if your link goes down or your provider link goes down, how dependent are you? Make sure your business or application can handle unexpected downtime.
Editors note: unless otherwise stated, these tips assume you are using a third-party provider for resources applications and are not a large enterprise with a centralized service on your Internet. For example, using QuickBooks over the Internet would be considered a cloud application (and one that I use extensively in our business), however, centralizing Microsoft excel on a corporate server with thin terminal clients would not be cloud computing.
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