The conversation surrounding networking solutions has changed dramatically over the years, driven by the introduction of cloud computing. Enterprise businesses today need scalable, high-performance bandwidth to make applications available at any time and any place, and across multiple devices. This type of capability is readily available through business Ethernet.

A recent IDC (News - Alert) webinar, hosted in conjunction with business Ethernet leader tw telecom (News - Alert), explored the current demands within the standard industry that are driving the need for and adoption of business Ethernet. CIO priorities are easily driven by collaboration, mobility, data traffic and cloud services. Businesses are increasingly using real-time and data intensive applications, employees need access to the network and applications across the miles and collaboration among key players is speeding time to market.

For enterprise telecom decision makers, mounting challenges continue to dominate their decisions, including the continued increase in data traffic volumes and latency sensitivity, security issues and regulatory requirements, the mission critical attributes of network performance, Green IT considerations and budget constraints – all of which are impacting the move toward business Ethernet.

The need for business Ethernet is expected to only continue to expand, especially as businesses continue to demand increased storage capacity for data. Regulatory agencies are also impacting the industry, with regulations such as HIPAA, SEC (News - Alert), Sarbanes-Oxley and more. Off-site backup and recovery are becoming more critical as data centers are increasingly consolidated. Software-as-a-Service continues to be in high demand, and the proliferation of rich multimedia experiences is not projected to slow anytime soon.

To meet the growing demand in the global market, business Ethernet must adapt to provide the right value, including on-demand bandwidth and the service-critical element of CoS. Overall, business Ethernet services are expected to grow to $8.2 billion in 2015, from $3.4 billion in 2010. This growth will be seen in application and performance monitoring, and the ready adoption of hybrid VPN and Ethernet WAN networks.

According to IDC, more than 50 percent of all business workloads will be processed in cloud environments by 2014. It is no longer enough for businesses and enterprises to rely on public Internet access alone to provide that viable connection to the cloud. Instead, business Ethernet is needed to deliver inherent cost advantages while also ensuring network visibility and control.

The availability of the Intelligent Network from tw telecom enables new IT architectures and access to cloud-based applications. This approach ensures companies can go beyond the connections and leverage next generation capabilities to support the growing demand for rich, multimedia content.

For more information on tw telecom’s business Ethernet offerings and the Intelligent Network, watch a video from the company here.