Telecoms.com

Telecoms.com periodically invites expert third parties to share their views on the industry’s most pressing issues. In this piece Michael Segal, Area Vice President, Strategic Marketing, at NETSCOUT, looks at the implications of Cisco’s proposed acquisition AppDynamics.

Cisco is in the application and service business. It spent $1.4 billion on acquiring Jasper Wireless last year and is about to invest another $3.7bn in AppDynamics.

Cisco’s acquisition strategy is indicative of changes sweeping the enterprise as more and more companies become reliant on applications, services, and data, and is a shift that’s fuelling a rapid period of digital transformation.

The value of digital services is becoming more apparent as we move towards an information-driven economy where data has become the new currency. Almost every aspect of business operations is now software-based with business success becoming intrinsically linked to the performance of applications, cloud computing, data centres, and other digital assets.

Enterprise networking has changed dramatically as a result, becoming more dynamic through technologies such as software-defined networking. These changes have left CIOs and IT departments wondering how to deal with this complex new environment. They’re faced with scenarios they never envisaged five years ago, ten years ago, or even last month, as they play catch-up with the rapid pace of technology.

Digital transformation is no longer shorthand for upgrading IT. It’s the mantra for modern business and without it companies will fall by the wayside, overtaken by web-scale organisations that have little regard for hardware and physical assets. More enterprises are relying on hybrid cloud environments, making software the backbone of the enterprise and data the glue that holds businesses together.

Everything is interconnected. In this day and age your digital services need to be delivered continuously and constantly operating at peak performance. If you don’t have sight of your entire IT infrastructure, how can you be sure you’re getting the best value from your services?

As area vice president of strategic marketing at NETSCOUT, Michael Segal is responsible for market research, enterprise solutions marketing, analyst relations, customer advocacy, analyst relations, advertising, and social marketing. Michael’s product management experience spans across ten years at Cisco Systems, where he managed all aspects of product line lifecycles for several successful product lines. Michael’s technical areas of expertise include SaaS/cloud, virtualisation, mobile IP, security, IP networking, Wi-Fi/wireless, VoIP, and remote access. Michael holds patents in areas of networking and wireless mobility.