If your head is in the clouds—and you know what we mean—you are our people! 

Yes, we’re talking to all you networking and cloud architects, engineers, programmers and developers—all you pros committed to accelerating digital and business transformation for your enterprise … and your career. 

We’re launching a new series—The Cloud Pragmatist—designed to help you turn networking challenges into opportunities as you journey through the cloud.

We all know the cloud is transforming business, but the cloud is also going through its own transformation, as the industry continues to evolve at break-neck speed. Our goal in this series is to highlight the most important cloud networking trends and challenges while helping you avoid costly mistakes. 

Episode 1—The Year Ahead: Top Trends in Secure Cloud Networking in 2022—Register here.

Episode 2—Cloud Migration: Preparing for New Security Risks and Opportunities—Register here.

Episode 3—Getting Ahead in the Cloud: Use the Skills Gap To Your Advantage – Register here.

We also want to know your personal focus in 2022, so we can share more meaningful and relevant content. Here are a few of the trends and challenges we are keeping an eye on.

Cloud Security

Across our industry, networking issue #1 for 2022 is security, whether in a single cloud, hybrid cloud or multi-cloud. 

Some of the biggest threats and most common security blunders share the same root: cloud migration leads to an entirely new environment with its own unique challenges, but too many organizations are trying to solve today’s security challenges with yesterday’s strategies. And too many enterprises are overly reliant on their CSPs for security, which can be a costly mistake. 

Whether just starting your public cloud migration, or going hybrid or multi-cloud in 2022, understanding this new environment offers the opportunity to review and upgrade network security. As our environment changes, so must our thinking. We’ll drill down into this issue in our next post.

Cloud Strategy

It seems that one cloud is never enough, and the move to multi-cloud is gaining momentum in 2022. A very important goal of this series will be to help network engineers and architects answer the inevitable question from the C-suite: “What’s your multi-cloud strategy?”

We’ll talk about best practices in setting up multi-cloud networking environments for improved visibility, operation and security. We’ll explore strategies for choosing the right cloud for the right application when going multi-cloud, and how to select the best architecture for hybrid networking environments. 

Cloud Trends

Other not-so-random topics we’ll be discussing include: 

• Cloud and edge compute (especially as industrial 5G matures): what’s coming, why it matters, and how to optimize the value
• AI/ML opportunities in the cloud
• Why robotic process automation (RPA) is moving to the cloud and how to manage the transition

Your Cloud Career

As this series is designed to benefit you, personally, we’ll also discuss career advancement for networking professionals, including what certifications are most valuable for your professional journey, how to stay ahead of evolving industry demands, and how team leaders can navigate the growing skills gap.

We’re here to help you accelerate progress within your organization and on your career path. But there’s no need to wait for future posts to address whatever’s on your mind right now. We’ve already got a deep catalog of resources for cloud networking and security engineers and architects. Check them out. And watch this space for frequent fresh posts!