Top 10 How-To Guides To Improve Your Network

Tech providers often provide valuable resources to help you optimize your network. Here are ten of our recent favorites.

Cloud, network, data center, and managed service providers often go beyond just offering their services. Explore any of your providers’ websites, and you’ll often find an abundance of resources with actionable guidance that can help improve and maintain an efficient enterprise network.

Whether you want to read up on the latest tech trends to guide your IT strategy or you’re after a step-by-step to upgrading your network, here are some recent guides we recommend checking out.

1. The Six Key Requirements for Multicloud Security

Palo Alto

In this e-book, Palo Alto gives actionable guidance to help you optimize your multicloud consistency and security, whatever stage you’re at in your multicloud journey.

The e-book covers monitoring, auditing, and validating configurations, embracing DevSecOps practices, identifying and correcting inconsistencies, monitoring compliance through a single dashboard, and detecting early signs of attacks.

By breaking down best practices into these six categories, your cloud admin and DevSecOps teams can methodically tackle the challenges of multicloud security from a unified platform.

2. The CISO’s Guide to SASE Adoption

Cloudflare

The concept of SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) is nothing new, but this network security architecture has never been more relevant than it is now. Cloudflare’s guide for Chief Information Security Officers (and any other senior network or IT managers) includes use cases on how you can use SASE in your real-world applications to improve your network security, plus how to evaluate and choose your next SASE solution.

With explanations for technical terminology and clearly laid out use cases, you don’t have to be a networking pro to get value from this one.

3. AI for IT Leaders: Deploying a Future-Proof IT Infrastructure

Digital Realty

When it comes to AI, it can be tempting to dive into the wealth of services available without first thinking about exactly how to go about adopting these solutions.

Digital Realty’s AI guide for IT leaders explains the real-world benefits of adopting enterprise AI, its evolution to contextualize its current capabilities, and offers practical guidance to streamlined, efficient workflows that effectively utilize AI to make your job easier and your business more profitable.

4. Dos and Don’ts When Transitioning From Legacy VPN to ZTNA

Versa

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) isn’t a new concept – we’ve covered the benefits of adopting ZTNA in a previous blog. As enterprise networks grow larger and more complex, the benefits of ZTNA become more compelling.

If you’re ready to take advantage of all the benefits it has to offer, read this guide from Versa before implementing your ZTNA network to avoid common mistakes and follow best practices. If you already have ZTNA, you can still use this guide to review and optimize your architecture.

5. 2024 Global Networking Trends Report

Cisco

We may be halfway through the year, but this report is just as relevant as it was at the beginning of 2024. With some interesting insights on network investment and operational trends, it’s worth reading before your next IT strategy review to guide your team in the right direction with where to invest and what to adopt next.

The summarizing points on the webpage are useful, but we think the full guide is worth downloading and keeping on-hand.

6. 17 Lessons Learned Migrating SAP to the Cloud

Microsoft Azure

This e-book is more use case-specific, but SAP workload migrations can be particularly large and complex projects. If these workloads aren’t migrated to the cloud in an optimized way, the resulting impacts to your bottom line could be substantial.

Not only does Azure’s guide list the 17 most common mistakes organizations make with these migrations, it goes beyond to give practical advice on how you can use AI and data capabilities to make these migrations easier, and easily scale within SAP. The e-book even comes with a best practices checklist.

7. Achieve IT Sustainability Goals With the Cloud

Wasabi

We’re using more data than we ever have and sustainability goals are becoming more ambitious than ever, making this webinar a must-listen.

Expert guests from Wasabi, 451 Research, and Zero Circle discuss how organizations can lower the environmental impact of their IT, get a competitive edge in an eco-conscious market, and leverage tools to get tangible, measurable results from their IT strategies.

8. Data Security as a Business Accelerator

AWS & IBM

Protecting your business data has value far beyond just meeting compliance, and this report explains where that value lies.

In this report, readers and experts on enterprise security weigh in with the value data security can bring organizations to unlock new business value, and how to foster a security-conscious work culture for a safer, more competitive enterprise.

9. 7 Ways Your Business Can Benefit From Colocation

QTS Data Centers

If your enterprise is on the fence about colocating, this one’s for you. This report from QTS Data Centers succinctly outlines the benefits of colocation to help you decide if it’s right for your organization, and communicate its advantages to your team to effectively incorporate it into your IT strategy.

10. The Top 5 Challenges of Firewall Management

Megaport & Mighty Guides

Thanks to constantly evolving cyber threats, a multitude of vendors, and a global surge in remote working, virtual firewall usage has skyrocketed. But organizations are realizing it can be challenging to manage all these firewalls.

This comprehensive guide outlines the challenges you can expect to come across in your firewall adoption journey, and equips you with the knowledge and tools you need to overcome them for a seamless virtual firewall experience.

Conclusion

While these how-to guides and resources have just been our recent favorites, there are plenty more to explore on these providers’ sites and beyond.

Cloud, data center, and network providers are often more than happy to share their knowledge – we’re all just a bunch of tech nerds, after all.

Visit the Megaport Resource Center to find even more useful guides for your networking journey.