The corporate network isn’t just about connecting devices; it now lays at the centre of the business, ensuring smooth, secure, and efficient operations. But is yours truly optimised for today’s demands?

Designing and maintaining a network means balancing speed, capacity, resilience, and security. Let’s look at the most important aspects of a modern corporate network:

1. Network Speed and Capacity

With hybrid work now commonplace, reliable network connectivity becomes even more important, with access requirements beyond the physical boundaries of the corporate HQ.

Growing reliance on cloud-based services such as Microsoft 365 and other SaaS applications has also significantly increased bandwidth demands. Our research shows that demand for network capacity, driven by cloud adoption and digital transformation, will grow at least 75% this year among small and medium businesses and up to 95% for larger enterprises.

A robust network to connect your people to each other, the cloud, your customers and your data centre is essential for maintaining business performance. Consider the following to ensure network performance:

• Provision Sufficient Bandwidth: Ensure your internet connection can handle the anticipated traffic, especially during peak usage hours.
• Implement QoS: Prioritise critical applications like VoIP, trading platforms, process control systems and remote desktop services to minimise latency and packet loss.
• Employ Advanced Traffic Management: Utilise tools to efficiently manage network traffic, preventing congestion and ensuring smooth operation.
• Proactive Monitoring: Monitor network performance to identify potential bottlenecks and proactively address issues.

2. Network Resilience

While no network is immune to interruptions, a resilient network can handle them seamlessly through automatic rerouting or switching to backup connections when needed.

Growing adoption of fibre connectivity means network resilience is improving – Beaming research shows that businesses are losing 20% less time to connectivity failures than five years ago.

However, growing dependence on connectivity means downtime is costlier than ever: UK businesses lost an estimated £3.7 billion in 2023 alone due to internet failures. 15% of companies start losing revenue immediately when connectivity drops, with 39% facing financial losses within a single working day.

With the shift to cloud-based operations, business-grade connectivity and failover options that kick in when there is a problem with the primary connection are critical.

We advise businesses to employ diverse routing and dual paths for mission-critical locations. These use separate routes to carry data, maintaining connectivity to minimise downtime and ensure continuity during disruptions. If one path gets compromised, the other remains operational to keep the business running without interruption.

3. Network Security

Today’s threat landscape demands that security be a core focus of any corporate network. With over 1.5 million UK businesses impacted by cybercrime last year, costing more than £30 billion, security is a high priority.

The attack surface and the number of possible points and vendors that open up vulnerabilities are wider than ever. A multi-layered approach to cybersecurity is now required, and businesses should adopt a “zero-trust” approach as standard, meaning no device or user is trusted by default.

Products like Cisco Umbrella for internet security and Cisco Secure Endpoint for endpoint protection provide multiple layers of defence, while solutions such as Sophos Intercept X for advanced threat protection and Sophos Firewall for network security enable businesses to adopt a robust security posture, continuously verify users and device identity, and enforce strict access control.

Beyond the network’s perimeter, data encryption is crucial for protecting information as it moves across the web. Secure VPNs and SSL encryption add extra layers of security for data in transit, while multi-factor authentication (MFA) helps verify user identities.

Changes to the network and firewalls should have controls such as double sign-off before implementation. Partners can assist by questioning whether any changes will leave the network vulnerable.