The current US economic situation has set off warning alarms for business and IT leaders alike. While there are no hard signs that the US economic slow down has impacted current projects, business and IT leaders have seen this movie before and are predictably proceeding with increased caution.

With heightened scrutiny on IT budgets, companies are increasingly looking to streamline processes and maximize efficiencies to lower costs without sacrificing overall service and quality. Through conversations with our customers about how this increased scrutiny is impacting their use of the network, I’ve learned that many business and IT leaders are turning to their network investments to generate greater productivity, maximize performance and create cost efficiencies across their organizations – put simply, today’s network infrastructures are being asked to do more with less.

Business communications networks have evolved. Today’s networks have become much more than just transport vehicles, they have become a business platform integral to application performance and delivery, which translates to improved business processes and workflow. As such, services that enable increased bandwidth and the ability to scale alongside business needs will become even more critical to enterprises seeking to increase productivity without increasing costs. One such service allowing this is carrier-class Ethernet.

Carrier-class Ethernet combines all the benefits and cost savings of Ethernet services with an infrastructure designed specifically to address the unique demands of today’s enterprises. Leading carrier-class Ethernet architectures feature a ring topology purpose-built for resiliency, redundant fiber throughout the core, distribution and access rings, and a “self-healing” architecture to repair potential problems before they reach end users. Carrier-class Ethernet networks provide increased value and peace of mind by bringing innovation, simplicity and predictability to business communications – three things that are critically important to today’s enterprises regardless of external economic pressures. This is accomplished by providing increased capacity, performance and scalability; lower costs; and the underlying platform to provide innovative Ethernet-based managed and hosted applications.

By implementing a carrier-class Ethernet-based network, organizations are able to innovatively expand their LANs into WANs. The evolution of standards has opened the door for Ethernet technology to expand from the LAN into the WAN quickly and easily. With standardized CPEs came the ability to push traffic in a native form across a carrier transport network. Resiliency and reliability were also key additions to the Ethernet standards, paving the way for service providers to scale their networks with virtually unlimited amounts of independent traffic flows. Traditional Ethernet relied on a domain being no larger then one enterprise campus. The scaling and security of carrier-class Ethernet now allows service providers to use this technology to service unlimited amounts of customers with robust mechanisms for fault recovery and traffic segregation – ensuring efficiency and productivity are maximized without impacting overall costs.

Many enterprise network managers are seeing their data volume dramatically increase. This is due to a number of reasons, including the enterprises’ increased reliance on bandwidth-hungry applications such as CRM, ERP, Business Intelligence, video conferencing and VOIP applications, as well as the need for greater network security, speed, and storage. Another, arguably more relevant factor that contributes to higher bandwidth is application transaction delay. Some modern applications actually require transaction delays in the 50-ms range that can only be delivered using high-speed transport. However, these applications will typically not compel a provider to dramatically re-architect its network; instead, they will change the way in which services including bandwidth are delivered. The providers, understandably, are looking for the "next big thing." The emerging applications may tip the balance in the service provider networks toward higher bandwidth and carrier-class Ethernet. Carrier-class Ethernet easily accommodates applications requiring the highest levels of bandwidth and is highly scalable – ensuring it will handle whatever level of bandwidth is needed now or in the future – from bandwidth ranging from 10 megabits to gigabit services.

According to the Insight Research Corporation, the U.S. Ethernet services market is expected to grow to more than $5 billion in 2012. The need to future-proof technology investments, maximize productivity and lower TCO is driving consolidation of IT infrastructures – increasing the need for more robust, high capacity Ethernet networks. Companies are seeking a smart choice for protecting their bottom line while ensuring productivity and efficiency are optimized – these companies need look no further than carrier-class Ethernet.

Lastly, to reduce operations costs and improve network performance, an increasing number of enterprises are outsourcing the day-to-day, tactical activities associated with communications, and turning to outside experts to provide managed and hosted solutions related to their network functions – resulting in a lower TCO than traditional offerings and allowing them to place greater focus and resources on their core business. By providing the underlying platform to provide innovative Ethernet-based managed and hosted applications, carrier-class Ethernet is able to create greater cost efficiencies and allow companies to place an increased focus on their core competencies.

If the economic landscape continues to exhibit volatility, IT budgets and technology spending will continue to be highly scrutinized and remain a top-of-mind issue for Business and IT leaders. These leaders must view this as an opportunity to optimize their networks and ensure the efficiency and longevity of their technology investments. Carrier-class Ethernet remains the intelligent choice for any enterprise seeking to balance optimum performance and their bottom line.

David Strauss is Vice President of Marketing for Optimum Lightpath.