
Networking Solutions
Top Trends 2022 - Networking Technology
By TechDogs Editorial Team

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Overview
The way we interact in 2022 would be highly influenced by key technological trends in the networking domain and it is imperative for any business to know where Networking Technology is headed. So, let's not waste time in setting the stage and get going with the top Networking Technology trends of 2022.
Read on!
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Some love stories are timeless but rare – aren’t they? How often would you find love after your son forces you to talk on a radio show and share your feelings? We’re talking about "Sleepless in Seattle," a love story which had radio shows and handwritten letters as messengers that brought two strangers living miles apart together. #WeLoveTomHanks
Times have changed. The way you find love has also changed. Now, people find their love over Tinder or AOL Mail like Kathleen and Joe (NY152) from the iconic rom-com "You’ve Got Mail." Still romantic, right?
You might be wondering, what’s with all the mush? We were trying to tell you how important building connections and networking is. It not only helps you find true love but also keeps you connected with your WFH (work from home) colleagues.
The cupid here is Networking Technology. From enabling work from home to making long-distance relationships work, Networking Technology has a great impact on our lives and on how businesses communicate. Invariably, it makes sense to know the latest that the technology has to offer.
Last year, Networking Technology trends included SD-WAN and SASE integrations to secure the upcoming hybrid workforces. The bigger question is what's next? Fret not, what are we here for? We've got you covered.
Dive right in to explore the top Networking Technology Trends of 2022!
Trend 1: AI Will Be The New Default For Networks

When Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking over most technologies, then why not networking? AI is in huge demand this year and that has a lot to do with the increasing complexity and traffic within modern networks. In 2022, AI technologies are here to reduce all our troubles and solve the problems for you - even before you recognize them! #NotYourLoveProblemsThough
As Artificial Intelligence takes over the manual processes, things will become a lot easier, especially for the network administrators. Integrating AI within existing networking tools will help businesses dynamically adjust the bandwidth, optimize the up time, quickly analyze issues to find root causes and even predict some future issues. If only AI could find causes and predict issues in a relationship! According to Gartner, 72% of businesses in the media and telecommunications industry believe that AI will have a significant impact on product offerings in the next five years.
Coming to the modern workforce, with companies switching to work from home and hybrid environments, the security threats will increase exponentially with the number of endpoints. Additionally, managing productivity for remote employees in a distributed workforce is infinitely more challenging. That's where AI will help bolster security through constant monitoring and analytics. It can even analyze network consumption to find the most productive hours and ensure enough bandwidth is allotted so that productivity isn’t affected.
TechDogs Opinion: We believe that as soon AI will alter the way organizations operate, interact and communicate. Thanks to AI, automatic provisions will make it easier to set up multiple networks and touchpoints as it will eliminate the need for manual efforts. Besides the automatic analytics capabilities, AI will help you identify independent network issues and troubleshoot them much quicker.
However, we predict that the most significant contribution of Artificial Intelligence in Networking Technology will be its ability to detect security threats and connectivity problems earlier, which will aid the IT teams and help in maintaining an effective line of communication among the workforce. Moreover, as enterprise networks keep on increasing in size and complexity, we believe integrating AI in networking infrastructures will become inevitable. This will transform the business landscape through its improved Wi-Fi performance, automated tracking of IoT endpoints, network congestion prediction, dynamic bandwidth allocation, etc.
Trend 2: SD-WAN Will Continue To Rule

SD-WAN, aka Software-Defined Wide Area Network, has been around for a while as an efficient, convenient and cost-effective network infrastructure solution. It was one of the leading trends in Networking Technology last year. However, this year, it's going to be even more critical. That is because more organizations are preparing to go hybrid or adapt a WFH model permanently in 2022 – and enterprise networks need to be ready for this change.
By integrating a SD-WAN strategy, it would allow businesses to transfer important communications, say nuclear war threats, to more secure and reliable channels. While the day-to-day office banter and discussions about the best rom-com of all time can be routed to a standard security, lower-bandwidth pathway. Although this may sound like a simple change, think of this - the SD-WAN market was worth $1.9 billion in 2020 but will rise to $8.4 billion by 2025 – an increase of more than 340%. The value addition of SD-WAN is not just streamlined communication but also lower complexity, centralized management, greater network visibility and support for multiple connection types.
Take it from the technology research firm Forrester, as they believe, "90% percent of network managers are looking to evolve their WAN using a software-defined approach." This networking trend will define how businesses expand and scale their existing on-premises networks for remote workers and telework in 2022 and beyond. Integrating a software defined networking approach to existing networks will also make it easier for businesses that want to deploy IoT (Internet of Thing) infrastructures in the future, as it will allow them to route the traffic over the best channel in real-time.
Techdogs Opinion: SD-WAN technology will be a game-changer for most businesses in 2022. It will enable companies to manage their network and bandwidth much better by ensuring critical communications and data transfer happens on a secure bandwidth with reliable up-time. At the same time, there's no compromise on networking speed or privacy, as the less crucial information would be bumped down to a lower bandwidth.
However, businesses will need to define how much of their outbound and inbound communication is actually critical and needs a higher encryption and security standard. Organizations may end up burning a hole in their pocket if they do not fully make use of the expensive, secure bandwidth to justify the investment in SD-WAN technology. Another factor that businesses need to consider is that there are various technical challenges to adopting SD-WAN solutions – namely lack of on-site network security features, constant upgrades and non-compatibility with WAN routers. This increases the overall cost of transitioning to a SD-WAN model, which is why most business are still depending on old connections.
Trend 3: 5G Will Be On The Move

We're sure, you must have heard or read about the '5G spreads COVID-19 virus' hoax at least once during the pandemic. Well, the #TechDogsTribe loves technology and feels the need to clarify - first of all, 5G technology works on radio waves and the virus cannot spread through it, secondly, the pandemic paved the path for 5G and not the other way around.
Coming to the technology, there were already huge expectations from 5G when the unforeseen rampant virus hit the world. However, the rollout of the 5G this year will mean better network speeds and enhanced network automation will change the game. To ensure that communications and accessibility are not compromised with an unprecedented amount of remote employees (and long-distance relationships!), businesses will continue to tap into 5G networks this year.
The global adoption of 5G will be driven mainly by smartphone subscriptions and IoT devices with 5G connectivity. Businesses in manufacturing, telecommunications, healthcare and finance will integrate 5G to improve the bandwidth and latencies within current networks. According to research firm Statista, the total 5G enabled smartphones will cross 2000 million in 2024, compared to only 569 million last year.
TechDogs Opinion: Due to the pandemic, many plans were put on hold which included businesses upgrading their network infrastructures from 4G to 5G. After a long delay, it will soon become the standard carrier network for organizations across domains. Not just them, this year, 5G will hit the open road to travel to every house and smartphone there is worldwide.
In 2022, businesses will depend on 5G to improve their enterprise networks but they also need to be aware of the change it will bring in consumer behavior. As home networks will also move away from old broadband access to the super-quick 5G broadband, consumer demand for 5G compatible devices and services will increase. We believe, as multi-edge computing (MEC) and hybrid cloud approaches gain significance, 5G networks and cloud capabilities will intersect. Data will need to be processed at the network's edge in order to provide the ultra-low latencies required to power emerging autonomous applications. As a result, any cloud-based strategy will be heavily reliant on how quickly the business adapts to 5G networks in 2022.
Trend 4: Wi-Fi 6 Will Take Over

Talking about better networking technologies and solutions, Wi-Fi 6 is on the way to make things more easy-going and seamless. With over 40% improvement in speed over WiFi 5, the latest Wi-Fi 6 will change the way your network operates. Just like the 5G technology trend, this one has been on hold for a long time - not anymore! Now we’re just waiting for the fourth movie in the "Before" series! #BestRomComTrilogyEver
It has always been challenging to deal with the ever-growing demand for better bandwidth for Wi-Fi connections. From everyday work requirements to enabling remote accessibility – the Wi-Fi connection has become synonymous with an Internet connection. While there has been a struggle in both B2B and B2C markets to address this issue - including Elon Musk launching 49 satellites in orbit around the Earth to beam down Wi-Fi - there was no real solution.
Enter Wi-Fi 6! In 2022, the new standard will start replacing older Wi-Fi networks and will be the dominant standard by 2023 as one-third of the 17 billion estimated home devices sold till date are Wi-Fi 6 integrated. Moreover, as the number of Internet-enabled devices grow, the amount Wi-Fi hotspot is predicted to rise over 13 times between 2020 and 2023.
TechDogs Opinion: As there is a rising demand for increased bandwidth for business activities and data transfer, networking will need to be much more smoother in the workplace in 2022. Thanks to the Wi-Fi 6 technology, businesses will be able to cope with this new increased demand. Wi-Fi 6 is also backwards compatible with its previous versions, so businesses need not spend on replacing all older PCs, laptops and other devices that do not support Wi-Fi 6. Moreover, Wi-Fi 6 will also drive the adoption of Internet-enabled intelligent devices in the workplace such as VR glasses, smart TVs and voice assistants.
The standout feature of Wi-Fi 6 is that it supports Internet of Things devices and can increase the number of access point to support more IoT connections as the scale of deployment increases. This will enable Wi-Fi-enabled home appliances with a better and faster network support. Another critical improvement is the "target wake time" or TWT feature, which helps the Wi-Fi network communicate with connected devices to tell them to sleep when the Wi-Fi is not being used. We expect this to bring about higher battery life in connected devices, especially IoT sensors. We’re sure, Wi-Fi 6 will spread like wildfire in 2022!
Trend 5: Networking Will Be On The Edge

Who doesn't like living life on the edge? Some may not but everyone loves edge networking resources – just like some people enjoy rom-coms and some do not. We’re not here to judge! The edge is essentially the region where a device or local computer interfaces with the internet or an enterprise network. The edge is close to the devices it is communicating with and is the entry point to the network. By bringing computation and data storage as close to the point of request as possible, there is less latency and faster communication – and who doesn't want that?
In 2022, we will have better edge networking approaches to meet the rising demands of the remote work setup. No wonder why IDC predicted that by 2024, around 30% infrastructure deployment will take place on the edge networking approach. Moreover, they also published a report where they suggest that nearly 6 in 10 (59%, to be precise) enterprises are planning to integrate edge fully into their existing cloud computing-based infrastructure.
The main benefit that enterprise networks will see is reduced latency in data transfer – for applications such as predictive analytics and monitoring that rely on real-time insights, edge networking will be a massive upgrade. There is also a significant boost in the network speed, which can be combined with 5G for an even more robust networking infrastructure. Now, you’ll be able to call your Romeo or Juliet from anywhere, at any time, using any device!
TechDogs Opinion: We expect edge networking will allow for a more robust distributed computing paradigm by bringing compute and storage resources closer to the point of request. Although edge computing has existed for a while, businesses will leverage it in 2022 to allow for improvements to the perimeter security and threat detection. Edge networks reduce the distance data travels and hence there will also be a reduced level of vulnerability.
Moreover, IT teams will be able to patch issues quicker as the edge is strategically located within the network. We believe that this trend will be more than just about low latency and higher bandwidth. We expect edge networking to become the norm as IoT applications and services take over the business landscape across industries. All in all, any organization that works with heavy data processing workloads will benefit tremendously from edge networks as they provide much better computing flexibility than traditional approaches.
Conclusion
Who knew that in just 40 years, Networking Technology would develop from a system that could barely send 2 letters at a time into a sophisticated network where people can share every second of their day through the Internet in real-time. Networking Technology will clearly continue to evolve over the course of time to keep us connected - professionally and personally. Trends such as SD-WAN, Edge Networking and Wi-Fi 6 will be key in shaping that in the best way possible. 5G deployments and AI integrations will also transform how we approach networking in the future.
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