With the public release of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s $10-billion investment into OpenAI, artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly gaining mainstream acceptance. For enterprise networking professionals, this means there is a very real possibility that AI traffic will affect their networks in major ways, both positive and negative.As AI becomes a core feature in mission-critical software, how should network teams and networking professionals adjust to stay ahead of the trend?
Andrew Coward, GM of Software Defined Networking at IBM, argues that the enterprise has already lost control of its networks. The shift to the cloud has left the traditional enterprise network stranded, and AI and automation are required if enterprises hope to regain control.
“The center of gravity has shifted from the corporate data center to a hybrid multicloud environment, but the network was designed for a world where all traffic still flows to the data center. This means that many of the network elements that dictate traffic flow and policy are now beyond the reach and control of the enterprise’s networking teams,” Coward said.
Recent research from Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) supports Coward’s observations. According to EMA’s 2022 Network Management Megatrends report, while 99% of enterprises have adopted at least one public-cloud service and 72% have a multicloud strategy, only 18% of the 400 IT organizations surveyed believed that their existing tools are effective at monitoring public clouds.
