CMC Networks

CMC: at the forefront of the networking revolution

05 February 2020

According to CMC Networks CEO Marisa Trisolino, the growth of IoT is leading to increasing demand for higher capacities and lower latency, as customers seek to align cloud strategies and IoT analytics.

“In order to meet these demands, new developments in connectivity – such as the global drive for 5G – will continue to be the biggest talking point, although for now, customers in Africa will continue to use terrestrial as a primary medium. However, as 5G eventually matures, throughput increases and latency decreases, customers may seek to move their primary connectivity to 5G, which will impact the connectivity requirements across provider backhauls,” she says.

“Additional game changers will include software defined networking (SDN) and self-provisioning networks, as these – while not new forms of connectivity, per se – will change the way networks are provisioned across multiple providers seamlessly.”

In trying to keep up with this rapid evolution, she continues, connectivity providers face three critical challenges: data security and integrity; research and development (R&D) investment; and skills development.

“Firstly, carriers are crucial in proactively protecting the network from new threats that are emerging over the internet, while Telco’s will be expected to deliver on customer expectations with a variety of technical and operational innovations.

“In fact CMC’s own Rapid Adaptive Network (C-RAN©) platform uses a proprietary routing protocol called Secure Vector Routing (SVR) by 128 Technology ©, where each payload in a packet is encrypted. As the packet traverses the network to its destination point, the packet goes through the C-RAN devices, where each packet is checked for integrity using its meta data. This is one of the benefits of having security baked into the network rather than at the edge,” adds Trisolino.

She indicates that some of the most important connectivity investments organisations should be making today include investing in connectivity to public cloud providers, and having these public cloud connections available in various locations. This will help accommodate the rapid migration of their IT infrastructure into the cloud, while providing the best possible experience. They should also be purchasing connectivity technologies that are flexible, easily scalable and based on open standards.

“CMC always focuses on staying ahead of the technology curve in order to address customer challenges immediately. We concentrate on providing a working and sustainable solution when moving from traditional point-to-point and on-premises services to point-to-cloud services.”

It should also be remembered, adds Trisolino, that when trying to stay ahead of the curve, a business can find itself in uncharted territories, with a limited view of what these new technologies’ final spend will be and how to manage it. Therefore, it’s critical to ensure a thorough scoping of the requirements and outcomes of any technology investment with all the relevant technology partners and vendors. This way, you can rest assured that their application performance meets their expectation and requirement levels.

“With close to 30 years in the connectivity industry across both Africa and the Middle East, CMC Networks understands its customers’ journeys. To this end, we have continued to upgrade our infrastructure to cater for their growing needs, while ensuring that digital transformation remains an integral part of their future growth,” she concludes.

Credit: Brainstorm Magazine - Feb 2020 issue