Enhance Scalability with New Network Infrastructure

As government entities continue to evolve, there is increased pressure to modernize infrastructure and handle the complexities of government services. Creating a resilient, secure, and scalable network infrastructure is essential, but many of today’s systems struggle to meet this requirement.

Inefficient scaling can create significant challenges, including performance bottlenecks, security vulnerabilities, and operational constraints. It also creates downstream issues that can affect employees, citizens, and mission readiness.

Many government systems simply cannot handle current demands and scale to accommodate future growth. Changes are needed.

Overcoming Challenges to Scalability in Government Operations

There are serious challenges with IT infrastructure that must be overcome. The biggest is technical debt. Nearly $100 billion is being spent each year on IT dedicated to keeping legacy systems running, some of which date back to the 1960s.

“Outdated systems and unsupported technologies hinder user productivity by causing frequent disruptions, slower performance, compatibility issues, and increased downtime, forcing users to spend more time troubleshooting and detracting from mission-critical tasks.” —CSO Serial Six: Technical Debt

Without change, technical debt only grows larger. “If we are not updating and modernizing the way that we should be along the way, we tend to build out that technical debt so it becomes more expensive,” said Caroline Bean, director of joint enterprise services at Defense Information Systems Agency.

Besides legacy systems that require updated infrastructure, there are other challenges, including:

• Budget constraints and costs, especially in the current administration’s cost-cutting environment
• Cybersecurity risks associated with rapid scaling and increased attack surfaces
• Regulatory compliance challenges
• Interoperability of systems within agencies and across government systems

Strategies to Ensure Scalable Network Infrastructure

To scale, you first need a solid foundation. Overcoming these challenges will require committing to modernization to build the networking foundation necessary for scaling. As agencies and organizations move forward, a few key strategies can help guide build-outs.

Adopt a Cloud-First and Hybrid Approach

Leverage cloud-based solutions to enable dynamic scaling, and utilize hybrid cloud environments for flexibility and redundancy. Cloud-based solutions allow for the rapid expansion of resources to meet growing demand without significant capital investment in physical infrastructure. By utilizing these environments, agencies can ensure that their network can scale horizontally, adding more capacity and resources as needed.

Many government agencies are also adopting hybrid cloud environments, which offer greater flexibility and redundancy. A hybrid approach enables agencies to balance workloads between private and public clouds, providing greater resilience and the ability to scale efficiently in response to changing requirements without sacrificing privacy and limiting access to sensitive data.

Implement Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Automation

Scaling also increases management responsibilities. SDN decouples the control plane from the data plane so network resources can be managed and optimized efficiently. This flexibility enables you to dynamically allocate bandwidth and adjust configurations without manual intervention.

Network automation has a particularly critical role in ensuring scalability. By automating routine tasks like network provisioning, monitoring, and troubleshooting, agencies can manage resources autonomously, reducing configuration errors. This is critically important for cybersecurity, especially for cloud resources. An IBM report shows that over 80% of data breaches involve data in the cloud, and Gartner research revealed that 99% of all firewall breaches can be traced back to misconfigurations.

Additionally, network automation improves operational efficiency and frees up resources. As government agencies scale network infrastructure, automation is crucial to manage the increased complexity.

Invest in High-Performance, Future-Proof Hardware

When designing scalable networks, invest in hardware that can support higher bandwidth and lower latency. Future-proofing hardware ensures that your infrastructure can handle increasing data traffic and the growing demands of future applications.

By deploying scalable, modular hardware components, agencies can more easily upgrade and expand their systems as needed, avoiding costly, large-scale overhauls. This flexibility enables government agencies to evolve their networks incrementally.

Enhance Security Without Compromising Scalability

As infrastructure scales, cybersecurity becomes even more critical. Zero trust architecture is a key principle for ensuring secure access control in increasingly complex government networks. By verifying every user, device, and transaction, it minimizes the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.

Security must be a priority in every layer of the network to ensure that scalability does not come at the cost of data protection. The integration of AI-driven threat detection systems can further protect network architecture by enabling the rapid identification of vulnerabilities and adapting to evolving risks in real time.

Ensure Interoperability and Standardization

Interoperability remains a consistent challenge. The Government Accountability Office and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have consistently pointed to a lack of interoperability across departments, agencies, and operations as a significant stumbling block.

Legacy systems, a lack of shared network infrastructure and standards, and slow adoption of technological improvements remain major obstacles. Moving forward, agencies need to align infrastructure with government IT frameworks and cybersecurity standards. By utilizing open-source and standardized solutions, agencies can avoid depending on a single vendor, thus maintaining flexibility and reducing long-term costs.

Optimize Network Performance Through Continuous Monitoring

As systems scale, network performance can degrade and increase in complexity with proper oversight. AI-powered analytics is a powerful tool to fine-tune and optimize performance, identifying areas of waste or potential issues before they become significant problems.

Automated performance tuning can ensure efficient resource allocation and avoid costly overspending, which is more common than one might think. A Forrester study of cloud spending uncovered that 94% of those surveyed were spending more in the cloud than anticipated, with nearly 60% of organizations overprovisioning or failing to end down unused resources.

AI also powers predictive maintenance. By continuously monitoring data, it can surface anomalies and trends that may indicate potential failures before they happen to help avoid disruption or unplanned downtime.

Future-Proofing Government Networks

A scalable infrastructure is essential for future-proofing government networks and maintaining operational resilience and security. Without modernization, agencies risk falling even further behind in supporting mission-critical government operations.

Many of today’s systems already struggle to meet current demands. Building a solid foundation for the future requires rethinking network infrastructure to scale efficiently.

Future-ready networks. Mission-ready operations. Modernizing your base network infrastructure is critical for increasing mission readiness, scalability, and security. Sumaria Systems provides the expertise and innovative solutions to integrate, protect, and optimize your network for peak performance. Discover how Sumaria can help you build a resilient, future-ready infrastructure.