2018 Networking Trends: 7 Innovations Reshaping Enterprise IT

In 2018, the networking landscape underwent a profound shift, driven by cloud advancements, intelligent automation, and the demand for scalable, secure infrastructures. Enterprises embraced innovations that promised to streamline operations, reduce overhead, and enhance performance. This article delves into the most influential trends that emerged that year, examining their implications for IT strategies and their lasting impact on digital transformation.

The Rise of Serverless Architectures in Enterprise Networks

Serverless computing emerged as a game-changer in 2018, allowing developers to deploy code without managing underlying servers. This paradigm shift abstracted away server provisioning, scaling, and maintenance, enabling focus on application logic. Major cloud providers like AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, and Azure Functions accelerated adoption by offering seamless integration with existing workflows.

From a networking perspective, serverless models reduced latency through edge deployment and auto-scaling, minimizing data travel distances. Enterprises reported up to 70% cost savings in some deployments, as billing shifted to actual usage rather than provisioned capacity. However, challenges included cold starts—initial function invocation delays—and the need for robust event-driven networking to handle bursts.

• Key Benefits: Automatic scaling, pay-per-use pricing, and simplified DevOps pipelines.
• Networking Impact: Increased demand for low-latency APIs and API gateways to manage microservices traffic.
• Adoption Drivers: Integration with IoT and real-time analytics workloads.

By year’s end, serverless had moved beyond prototypes, powering production environments in finance and e-commerce, fundamentally altering how networks supported dynamic workloads.

Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Core Applications

AI integration into everyday applications marked another hallmark of 2018 networking trends. Apps evolved from static tools to intelligent systems capable of predictive analytics, natural language processing, and autonomous decision-making. This required networks to prioritize AI traffic with ultra-low latency and high throughput.

Networking teams adapted QoS policies to elevate AI workloads alongside voice and video, ensuring real-time inference without bottlenecks. Bandwidth demands surged, with AI models like deep neural networks processing terabytes of data daily. Edge AI mitigated this by pushing computation closer to data sources, reducing core network strain.

These enhancements not only boosted app intelligence but also fostered hybrid cloud networks optimized for AI’s computational intensity.

Intent-Based Networking Revolutionizes Management

Intent-based networking (IBN) debuted prominently in 2018, leveraging AI and automation to translate high-level business intents into network configurations. Unlike traditional manual setups, IBN continuously monitors, verifies, and adjusts networks to meet defined outcomes, such as “ensure 99.99% uptime for e-commerce sites.”

Cisco’s DNA Center exemplified this trend, providing closed-loop automation. Networks became self-healing, detecting anomalies via machine learning and remediating issues proactively. This shift empowered IT teams to focus on strategy over firefighting, with adoption rates climbing 40% in large enterprises per industry reports.

• Core Components: Intent definition, translation, activation, assurance, and analytics.
• Benefits: Reduced configuration errors by 90%, faster provisioning.
• Challenges: Initial setup complexity and skill gaps in AI ops.

IBN laid the groundwork for zero-touch provisioning, making networks agile enough for multi-cloud eras.

Web-Based Global Infrastructure Control

A unified HTML5 portal for managing all IT infrastructure—servers, apps, databases, security, and networks—gained traction in 2018. Accessible from any device worldwide, these platforms enabled remote diagnostics, policy enforcement, and orchestration without VPN dependencies.

This trend dismantled geographical barriers, supporting distributed workforces and 24/7 operations. Tools like VMware vRealize and Cisco Prime offered dashboards with drill-down analytics, predictive alerts, and one-click remediation. Security was paramount, with multi-factor authentication and zero-trust models embedded.

Organizations saw troubleshooting times drop by 50%, fostering a new era of borderless IT. Integration with public clouds extended control to hybrid environments seamlessly.

Enhanced Bandwidth and Wireless Evolutions

With exploding data volumes from 4K video, IoT, and cloud syncs, 2018 emphasized bandwidth boosts. Ethernet speeds hit 400Gbps in data centers, while Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) promised denser, faster WLANs for enterprise campuses.

Upgrading WLANs addressed spectrum congestion, supporting more devices per access point. MU-MIMO and OFDMA technologies multiplied throughput, crucial for AR/VR pilots. SD-WAN complemented this by optimizing WAN traffic intelligently, cutting costs by 60% in branch offices.

Security and Analytics Convergence

Networking trends intertwined with security as encrypted traffic soared. Next-gen analytics provided 360-degree visibility, blending NetOps and SecOps. Selective decryption and micro-segmentation protected IoT expansions without performance hits.

Automation emerged as a differentiator, with scripts and IBN automating compliance checks and threat responses.

Future-Proofing with 5G Preparations

Though nascent, 5G groundwork influenced 2018 networks. Trials promised 10x 4G speeds, spurring edge computing investments to handle ultra-reliable low-latency comms (URLLC).

FAQs

What was the most surprising 2018 networking trend?

Serverless computing’s rapid enterprise uptake outpaced expectations, driven by cloud maturity.

How did AI change network priorities?

AI apps demanded top QoS tiers for real-time processing, rivaling VoIP requirements.

Is intent-based networking still relevant today?

Yes, it evolved into AIOps platforms, foundational for modern self-driving networks.

What role did web portals play?

They enabled global, anytime management, boosting remote IT efficiency.

Conclusion

2018’s networking trends catalyzed a shift toward intelligent, automated, and scalable infrastructures. From serverless efficiencies to AI empowerment, these innovations continue to underpin today’s digital enterprises, proving their enduring value.