The importance of good design can’t be overstated. This goes for everything from the spiffy desk and state-of-the-art ergonomic chair that make up your workspace; to the user interfaces of your favourite apps; to elaborate machinery and operating systems.

Proper design paves the way for optimal functioning, minimises disruptions and provides the best user experience possible. And this certainly applies to a cloud-ready network. The latter is made up of intricate components that must be well-implemented for the network to operate without a hitch. And as your network grows and increases in complexity, it’s all the more essential to ensure that it’s designed in the right way. If not, you’re likely to be saddled with a host of issues: including additional hidden costs, having to retroactively reconfigure your system or ending up with a subpar network that isn’t able to support the needs of the business.

But designing cloud-ready networks is not a walk in the park, and expectations don’t always match up with reality. For instance, while you may think that one network blueprint meets all business needs, the ideal system should be custom-built for your unique requirements.

Furthermore, rather than prioritise the overlay, you must also make sure that the underlay is well-designed and integrated for optimal visibility and management. And contrary to common misconceptions, no two markets are the same – so you’ll have to configure your network around fragmented regulatory environments and varying infrastructure.

Indeed, a fully optimised, cloud-ready enterprise network must address the diverse needs of your organisation, both now and in the future. It must be agile, flexible and rapidly scalable to meet changing business demands, and offer secure and reliable connections between data centres, multiple clouds and the Internet. It should also integrate networking and security services onto a single cloud platform for easy access and monitoring.

To this end, here are three essential design principles to consider when building a cloud-ready network.

At the heart of every successful cloud-ready network lies a solid foundation constructed with the latest software-defined technologies.

Build a secure hybrid infrastructure for business agility:
Want the best of both worlds? Deploy a hybrid network. This lets you combine the reliability and security of a private network with the scalability and cost-effectiveness of the public Internet. To achieve this, you can work with a provider that offers extensive geographical coverage, consistent Internet performance via secure traffic routing, tools for real-time monitoring and visibility and the ability to manage heterogeneous systems.

Navigate into key global markets with the latest technology:
Expanding your network across foreign lands is no easy feat. To pull this off successfully, you’ll need a partner that not only possesses deep expertise in and ties to key markets, but can also provide the latest technology – both globally and locally. This will empower you with the right tools to ensure that your network flourishes regardless of the region. Such solutions can include SD-WAN gateways integrated with cloud and SASE, a sprawling network of managed PoPs and wide-ranging on-the-ground connectivity services to seamlessly interlink your branches within the respective countries.

Achieve fast deployment of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) over a single device:
As your organisation expands, it becomes increasingly complex and resource-intensive to manage multiple network deployments across different locations. Poor network visibility can further hinder system monitoring and troubleshooting. This can be remedied by using VNFs to consolidate various services onto one hardware platform for better visibility of and control over your network as it grows.

Another crucial design principle is priming your network for the cloud, which allows for optimal performance and cost savings. This can be attained by designing a secure hybrid network for the multi-cloud environment – while ensuring that the requirements for WAN architecture, workload life-cycle configuration and policy management of each public cloud are met. Additionally, you can leverage 5G for edge computing.

Finally, it’s important that your network remains secure and resilient in the face of expansion. As your network encompasses more locations, remote-working setups and multi-cloud environments, it’s prudent to adopt a zero-trust perspective and re-evaluate your entire security approach. You can also draw on AI- and ML-based applications and SASE for better monitoring and more agile network security.

A well-designed network is pivotal for your organisation to function properly. By working with a provider such as Singtel – which has a long history of helping businesses design and deploy successful cloud-ready networks – you can establish a strong foundation to power mission-critical operations.