Can SD-WAN help overcome IT skills shortages?A recent survey, conducted by Uptime Institute, showed that data centre IT skill shortages will intensify as most operators continue to struggle with staffing issues. Source: pixabay.com Interestingly, the primary driver cited was an ageing worker pool and the overwhelming male makeup of this sector. According to the survey results, other factors contributing to skill shortages include a lack of hybrid IT skills; a lack of new skills (like managing SLAs for off-premise workloads); a lack of software skills with the adoption of software-defined technologies; and fewer young men and women entering the field. Anton Jacobsz, CEO at Networks Unlimited Africa, says the data centre IT skills shortage is spilling over from the data centre to the management administration of branch office infrastructure. “The two go hand in hand as most skills are leveraged across both areas and brand office networks are merely a ‘miniature architecture’ of the data centre network.” In a blog discussing this shortage, Silver Peak’s Rami Rammaha said branch office networks typically include switches, routers, WAN optimisation appliances, firewalls and other networking gear that all require similar IT knowledge and skills as the data centre. “As enterprises embrace digital transformation initiatives and leverage a cloud-first strategy to accelerate the transformation, new and hybrid IT skills are fast becoming critical to success.” Rammaha delves into the top three IT skill shortages and offers guidance around how SD-WAN can bridge the gap:
Jacobsz concurs, saying an SD-WANs architecture has been designed from the ground up to support cloud-first initiatives. “Some of the more advanced offerings, such as the Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform, were also designed to be ‘business-driven’, which means the network enables the business, rather than the business conforming to the constraints of the network,” he says. “Instead of being a constraint, the WAN becomes a business accelerant that is fully automated and continuous, giving every application the resources it truly needs, while delivering 10x the bandwidth for the same budget – equating to increased productivity and simplicity.” Download the Uptime Institute Global Data Centre Survey (PDF File: 840KB) |