Episode 4: “Always pass on what you have learned (What is a WAN and why do I need one?)”

Quoted as an “industry veteran” when I joined Vocus, there were a couple of ways I could I take this new mantle on. I could sit back and ponder my existence in the thesaurus of the moniker, many variants of which start with the word “old”, e.g. old-timer, old-hand, old-stager…or I could own my new title and go a bit Yoda on it.

Sidebar: “Doyen” is a cool word anyone writing something about me in the future could consider as an alternative …

In the next few posts, written I hope not too much in the style of “look at me”, I thought I might “pass on” some information, sayings and slides I have enjoyed using in my 40+ years in telco. I will try and stick to my mantra around technology by framing posts against the tests of “what is it?”, “why should I care?” and “why should I buy it from you?”. Let’s see how we go ...

For our first instalment, let’s start with this slide below which I use at the start of many presentations spanning all sorts of audiences. I think Steve Combes may have put me onto this slide maybe 10 years ago, maybe, I don’t know, hell I can’t remember what I did 10 minutes ago but let’s go with that:

In the last three months, I have used this slide in a technical forum where I was asked to outline to new product construct for Future State products and again most recently taking new starters through a “Networks 101” intro.

What is a WAN and why do you need one?

I like this slide as a reflection point, before going into Ethernets, Internets, IPWANs, NNIs, UNIs blahdy blahdy blah, to explain why networks actually exist.

The narrative goes something like “Wide Area Networks (WANs) exist to connect end users to applications, considering that, for reasons including cost optimisation, information sharing and resiliency, the physical location of the user and where the applications are hosted are not typically the same”.

The slide is a simple, sometimes laughable presentation start for the more technically minded but for the general audience it’s a useful point that becomes even more easily understood when you reference a person’s home internet as one type of WAN connection between themselves and locations hosted in the cloud. Ahh, what is the cloud, where is the cloud… not at my home at least.

With the foundation of what is a WAN and why you need one banked, we can then transition the discussion to all the many and varied WAN flavours. Deciding on what type of WAN you need is pretty much like most transport decisions – price vs performance, considering the needs of the cargo onboard, in this case, business application traffic.

Why should a business care about application traffic?

Applications continue to be the lifeblood of every business supporting desired business outcomes. The importance of applications, I suggest, is best evidenced by simply imagining what would happen to your business if you logged on and got nothing back but a blank screen. Close to zero productivity, inability to serve your customers, and without remediation, business failure.

Why would I get my WAN from Vocus?

Another simple answer for those reading my articles over the last two years 😊 but if I had to do an elevator pitch: we deliver fit for purpose and competitive network connectivity solutions supported by our people who deliver a great customer service experience. A bit like my WAN explanation, at Vocus we’re about making things better, simpler and easier for our customers to achieve their desired business outcomes. We listen, respond and support you every step of the way.

Want to learn more about our Wide Area Networking solutions at Vocus?. Come and visit us at vocus.com.au including checking out our updated Dark Fibre page. Interested in joining me at Vocus where I can dazzle you with fundamental network and application concepts? Check out our careers site

Note/Disclaimer: if you want me to take you through this slide and other musings, just reach out, it is well known in the industry how much I love the sound of my own voice. It’s been a while since an article and apols to my fans and devotees, it’s pretty hectic at Vocus with fibre bits and satellite thingys being the challenger our customers deserve 😊