Data volumes will go on rising

Dan Cunliffe thinks should plan now for future data volume surges and connectivity demands

The explosion of cloud computing and mobile device use has caused fears of a bandwidth crunch, with data volumes affecting the quality of connectivity.

Cloud computing is growing more popular as businesses look to pursue every possible saving. However, this means uploading and downloading large volumes of data on a regular basis.

Organisations are also now encouraging staff to bring their own devices into work, and we have seen this trend ramp up dramatically in the past year.

The market will open up for enterprise mobility management vendors and self-service device management that could reduce operational and call centre overheads. This change will also increase data consumption.

In addition, video and desktop sharing are more popular than ever, as is unified communications. End-to-end VoIP will also strain broadband.

During networking rush hours, web pages can freeze and browsing slow down. But workers expect a fixed-broadband experience akin to what they might have at home via a mobile device.

Improvements to infrastructure and technology will do a lot to help but businesses need to start preparing now, and of course the channel can help.

A capped or top-up tariff is no longer a smart choice for businesses. A lower price may seem attractive, but data rates over the allowance can be very high. It can also be difficult to get users to reduce their data use, so an unlimited plan can be the best solution.

Network providers are developing mobile-data management technologies and this year many exciting new technologies to lighten the load will appear – driving further mobility.

Customers will therefore need to plan for the surge in data volumes over the next few years.

Dan Cunliffe is head of partners and strategy at O2 Wholesale