Your network infrastructure is the backbone of your organisation. Without it, your daily operations and corporate communications would grind to a halt. As such, it’s vital to prioritise the modernisation of your organisation’s current network infrastructure.

However, your network is not a visible component of your business and can easily get overlooked when budgets are handed out. As such, you may struggle to convince your boss to invest in your network infrastructure.

If you need to convince your leadership team about the benefits of investing in your network infrastructure, here are seven stand-out reasons:

1. Your network traffic is set to surge

Advancing digitisation means the world’s networks are under increasing pressure from phenomena like the Internet of Things, video streaming and cloud computing. In fact, global IP traffic is predicted to increase threefold between 2017 and 2022. Gartner also predicts 20 billion “things” (or interconnected devices) will be online by 2020.

Your network infrastructure is no exception – it needs to be capable of handling such increases in internet traffic.

2. Your network is already too slow

Wireless networks now allow your workforce to work anytime, anywhere, at amazing speeds. For example, wireless access points can help deliver speeds of up to seven Gbps or higher, which is about 12 times faster compared to networks from just a few years ago.

If you have an old network, it may not be able to support the flexible working demands of your staff. However, by enabling seamless flexible working practices your business will not only attract the top talent, but could also boost its productivity levels, according to nine-out of-ten SMEs.

3. Your network is vulnerable to attacks

Are you taking the threats to your network seriously enough? Today’s cybercriminals are more sophisticated than ever before and more than capable of penetrating older networks.

By upgrading your network infrastructure, you will receive new switches, routers, and wireless systems, which come with intelligent sensors and enforcers, to protect your business with the latest know-how and technologies.

4. Your IT staff are too busy firefighting to innovate

If your IT staff are constantly maintaining your network infrastructure, then you should consider an upgrade. Switching to a more advanced infrastructure can speed up your network operations and deployment, freeing your staff from repetitive tasks so they can innovate and maintain your organisation’s competitive edge in the market.

5. Every time you do something new, your network crashes

You may not be able to run more advanced and data-heavy applications on an old, crumbling network. You need a powerful network infrastructure, one that is robust and modern to run these state-of-the-art applications.

A comprehensive network upgrade will ensure your business can keep up-to-date and doesn’t slow down with any major application launches.

6. A future-proofed network brings business benefits

Explain to your management team that an investment in your network infrastructure is an investment in solutions that evolve with your business demands. And, in order to scale in this way, they need to invest in a growth-oriented end-to-end infrastructure, not fixed-point technologies with limited flexibility.

Systems need to be robust enough to support the addition of new services as your business requirements change. A future-proofed network vision allows you to add blades, line cards, or other modules to meet any new requirements in a cost-effective manner. You will avoid the expense of ripping out and replacing legacy components.

7. Your ROI will outstrip your investment in a new infrastructure

This is a big one. In this economic climate, you need to explain how a return on investment will be realised in a shorter time frame than ever before.

Creating a more power-efficient network infrastructure is one way you can address immediate ROI concerns in your business case. Condensing the infrastructure onto modern networking equipment not only delivers higher density and performance, but new systems draw only one-third the power of older technologies.

Further research reveals power savings on network components, along with server consolidation and virtualisation, means your network can achieve between 40 percent to 50 percent savings on its infrastructure costs.

Depending on the network solution you choose, you could realise extensive cost savings. For example, Cisco Meraki has carried out studies with customers to reveal OpEx savings in the region of 90% when compared to more traditional technologies. The solution also delivers CapEx savings of up to 20%, dependent on the pricing variations between enterprise hardware and licensing vendors.