Around the turn of the 21st century, MPLS very rapidly became the networking protocol of choice for large national and international institutions. This insight looks at the changing face of MPLS deployments and how the importance of traffic categorisation, and specifically the changing nature of the data flowing across these networks, needs to be managed and distributed effectively across an organisation’s Class of Service scheme. It highlights the different aspects of the changing face of global data network traffic.

Wavestone recommends that organisations undertake their own detailed network traffic analysis. The raw data can be provided by the incumbent network provider or indeed by the organisation itself where it has suitable installed devices and applications. The critical step is to then identify the appropriate conclusions from such traffic analysis and formulate a network traffic plan to address data growth, evolution and WAN offload requirements.