The following blog was adapted from the transcripts of a video series. To view the videos, please click on the link at the bottom of the blog.
Why Is IP Network Modernization So Important?
IP Network Modernization is important because you might have an aging infrastructure that can’t cope with the speeds that are required in today’s network. If you have latency in your network, you need to push forward to what your customers are requiring. They need more bandwidth, especially in the last few years with explosive growth in 5G cloud services. There’s also a lot of data-driven technologies that are chewing up the bandwidth pipes on these networks. Your network needs to evolve to be future-facing networks. IP Network Modernization allows the carriers, telcos, and other lines of business to remain competitive. You need this extra bandwidth to offer different services and to continue with your current services at the rate of bandwidth. You also need this extra space to be able to gain a competitive edge and to push your networks into the future. Older networks can’t cope because they’re choked down by their bandwidth profiles. There are latencies issues and speed restraints that are not good for a fast broadband network. IP Network Modernization works in a couple ways to help if you have an aging infrastructure. Everything is a one Radio Unit (RU) blade chassis for the most part, which make it very interchangeable, very stackable. You can pay as you grow and you don’t have to be constrained by putting in a huge power base. You don’t need a huge amount of space to build your network in the future. You can start at an entry level and add as you need to expand.
What Are the Key Challenges That Customers Are Facing?
The key challenges our customers are facing with aging networks breaks down into two parts. You have the physicality of an aging network with older technology. It’s outdated, so you can rip and replace. But you need the people and the resources to implement this. Your company may not have the resources, or they’re already tied up in maintaining your current network and you don’t have the resources available to implement IP Network Modernization. Second, your team may not have the skill sets to complete an IP Network Modernization. There is a lot of complexity involved in this, including different manufacturers, multiple OEMs, and you need a unique skill set with multiple certifications to be able to implement all these different facets into one network. There’s a finite number of people who understand the network from A to Z. And that’s crucial when performing IP Network Modernization.
How Does IP Network Modernization Improve the Challenges Customers Are Facing?
1Finity has the resources to get inside these telcos and data centers to replace the existing hardware. The future is going to be in the hardware. We also have the skilled people with expert level certifications, including Cisco CCIEs, Nokia SRAs, and more. Our team has expert level certifications and we know Layer 3 technology inside and out. The nice part about 1Finity’s NetMod team is they have expert level certifications in multiple manufacturers and in all facets of Layer 3. We can bridge the knowledge gap for your team as we step in to implement your ideal network. A lot of what we do with IP Network Modernization, which is a subset of our Network Modernization team, is automating processes. We like to build tools to not only make it more efficient for us but also for your team. We offer a quick turnaround time with our proven processes and tools. We’re able to implement and handover your network much sooner.
What Processes Does 1Finity Use to Assist Customers With IP Network Modernization?
We work with each customer to develop their IP Network Modernization plan. If we have access to your systems, we will start with a network discovery. We want to know what’s in your network. If we don’t have access to your network, we will work with your team to get a high-level design of what is in your network. From there, we do an engineering analysis. We see what you have today, and then we work with you to plan your future network. Do you have a single OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)? Are you beholden to a single OEM? A lot of carriers have contracts, and they have to stay with an OEM. We look at all the variables that we have to work with during the engineering analysis and determine the best possible project that we can offer. Once we get the engineering analysis done, we can co-create a design with the customer. That’s when we go to work in the field to install the equipment, the racking, stacking the power at base config level. Once everything’s powered up and ready, we load the routers to get everything ready. When we do the migrations, there’s not a lot of errors. All the scripts are loaded into boxes, and we have no syntax errors. We work through that process and make the migration as seamless as possible. Once we’re done with the integration of the network, everything’s migrated over. We want to make sure we hand over a working system with documentation using your preferred method of data inventory. We want to make sure everything has been updated to the new devices installed in your network to give your team a working database that they can refer to in case there’s anything wrong.
What Are the Key Advantages of 1Finity’s IP Network Modernization Solution?
One of the main elements that sets us apart from competitors is 1Finity’s ability to be product agnostic. We don’t care what the equipment is, we’re just here to work on Layer 3. One of the big things that we have is an end-to-end solution. We’ll take it from the engineering level and design all the way down to your granted updates. This allows the customer to be hands off during this whole process. We also offer our IP Network Modernization services à la carte. Sometimes the customer doesn’t need us to do granted updates or the engineering. They just need us for the physical part in the field. We listen to the customers’ needs and provide a personalized solution. 1Finity also offers our lab space where we can perform interoperability testing. If you’re proving a concept or you’re trying to integrate different OEMs with something that hasn’t been done before in your network, we have the ability to bring that in. Tell us what your problem is, tell us what you’re trying to do, and we’ll bring that equipment into our lab, get it live on a network, and we’ll integrate the two together. And we will make sure everything is functional before we actually put this into the live environment and put it on a network.
To learn more about 1Finity’s IP Network Modernization services, watch our video series that answers the most common questions our customers have.
