Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022.  Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

How connectivity will transform the enterprise in 2022

By Donna Johnson, Vice President of Product and Solutions Marketing, Cradlepoint

Over the last year, we have seen the enterprise continue to navigate the unique challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the new working model for the transformed enterprise depends on connectivity, which is critical to support businesses from an experience, security and agility standpoint, there has been dramatic growth in 5G adoption.

Wireless edge solutions will become synonymous with business success, as they unlock the power of LTE and 5G cellular networks to give organizations the boundless reach, nonstop reliability, and real-time agility they need to keep up with customers, partners, and operations on a daily basis. This translates across sectors in the enterprise, powering fixed and temporary sites, vehicles, field forces, and IoT devices, anywhere. Simply. Securely. Wirelessly.

This is especially prevalent now, as the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill offers up a unique opportunity for growth in the telecommunications market. The legislation allocates a total of $65 billion in funding for broadband, marking 2022 as a year for expansion in the sector. Now is a pivotal time for businesses across the U.S. to take advantage of the agility, performance and security that wireless solutions such as 5G and Wireless WAN have to offer. 

Looking to 2022, businesses will continue to seek out opportunities to leverage 5G, Wireless WAN and other innovations in connectivity to further support our hybrid world. Specifically, 5G will play a critical factor in reinventing the enterprise as we know it as there becomes a greater need for more secure, flexible, and reliable connectivity.

5G Security Become a Bigger Reality for Enterprises

The intersection of 5G and security increasingly becomes a bigger topic. As threat actors leverage new and sophisticated tactics, 5G can actually provide enhanced security and reliability for businesses today. CISOs are beginning to evaluate these technologies as viable solutions in the war against threats. -Donna Johnson, Vice President of Product and Solutions Marketing, Cradlepoint

The Intersection of Network Slicing and SD-WAN Enable New Service Tiers

Traffic steering, QoS, and segmentation - enterprises and carriers have offered these services for years. But in a new world with 5G and network slicing, who should deliver it? The Enterprise with SD-WAN? The Carrier with network slicing? What about both? WAN models support a jointly delivered SD-WAN and network slicing service which could change the future of wide-area networking. -Donna Johnson, Vice President of Product and Solutions Marketing, Cradlepoint

The Channel Looks to Service-Led Business Models

Over the past year, we've seen partners begin to realize how crucial it is to have rapidly deployable wireless WANs in place pending a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak and surge in remote work have completely altered the way we operate, stressing the importance of cloud-based platforms and the flexibility of wireless WAN. This trend signals a shift in channel business models to become more services-led and require partners to have deep wireless WAN (4G/5G) practices that deliver true business outcomes to address the consequence brought on by the pandemic. -Eric Purcell, SVP, Global Partner Sales, Cradlepoint

From a connectivity perspective, the new year will present both fresh opportunities and challenges as this new normal extends into the long term and the way businesses operate permanently change. The multifaceted advantages of wireless edge solutions will only continue to allow the enterprise to blossom as we embrace a new model of working.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Donna Johnson, Vice President of Product and Solution Marketing, Cradlepoint

Donna Johnson is vice president of product and solution marketing at Cradlepoint. Throughout her career, Donna has worked with network management and infrastructure products, holding positions of engineering management, product management and product marketing at companies such as Talari Networks, Objective Systems Integrators and Dorado Software. Most recently, she was director of product marketing for NetScaler SD-WAN with Citrix.