CLOUD & COLOCATION
Data centre infrastructure is becoming increasingly complex, given the rise of AI, automation and cloud computing demand. However, one of the most significant challenges for operators is the speed of innovation.
With this in mind, the industry is having to consider the impact of human error in networks. Human error can look like software bugs or hardware issues, but it can also be misconfigurations or operational miscues too.
“ As we talk about reducing human error to zero, we need to look at both,” says Mike Bushong, Vice President of Data Centers at Nokia.“ In an industry that ought to be defined by reliability, we really need to get back to the basics and tend to the foundation.”
Focusing on data centre networking, Mike leads Nokia’ s cloud and enterprise IP networking efforts. He shares his insights on how data centre networks can achieve greater operational resilience and how Nokia continues to bolster its network performance.
Learning lessons from the cloud When it comes to operations, those working in the cloud space have changed the game. Cloud providers have been able to successfully standardise their networks so that any business can leverage it, on account of what Mike refers to as the“ early days of lift and shift”.
He explains:“ Enterprises had to change their apps to leverage the cloud. Now, cloud data centres operate at a crazy scale, but they use only a tiny subset of features.”
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96 August 2025