SmartEnterprise: Solving IT Infrastructure Challenges with Smarter Connectivity

It’s a reality of modern business that any commercial organisation can only respond to market changes and scale at the rate that its connectivity infrastructure allows.  

With the rise of cloud computing, remote work, and the Internet of Things (IoT), businesses are now dependent on agile and secure connectivity to underpin innovation, productivity, and growth.

When it comes to actioning and implementing new connectivity solutions, IT professionals and system administrators require specific information on new product features, as well as a broader overview of the current industry position and the obstacles facing contemporary business connectivity.

The aim of this article is to review the current market, provide some context about the current obstacles and opportunities, and introduce SmartEnterprise as 1GLOBAL’s unique solution.

Let’s start with a look at most recent trends effecting the state of IT connectivity, focusing on critical aspects of security, remote access, and scalability.

The state of connectivity

The fact that the state-of-the-art in business connectivity is rapidly evolving does not come as a surprise to most professionals.  The scale and speed of this transformation, however, has been harder to predict.      

In the enterprise sector in 2024…

• Connectivity transactions (inc. mergers, acquisitions, and investments) exceeded €60 billion, representing a big bump year-on-year.  

• Spending on cloud computing reached over €690 billion, up 21.5%, with a significant portion of this dedicated purely to infrastructure.  

• Network operator capex surpassed €575 billion, primarily driven by investments in 5G, fibre optics, and data centres.

These technologies and mammoth investments are already starting to deliver faster, more reliable, and more efficient communication between devices, leading to improved user experiences and overall performance. This trend has proven to be persistent across sectors, including IoT, retail, financial services and beyond.   

Preparing for the future

However, this growth also presents challenges. Businesses are struggling to keep up with the sheer bandwidth demands.

Cloud phone systems, cloud computing, video conferencing, remote working, and the exponential growth in the average size of file transfers all contribute to the heavy bandwidth load that businesses need to manage.

Outdated connectivity methods and legacy network technology can no longer support the needs of modern businesses, leading to network frustrations, loss of productivity, and declining business operations.  

Outgrowing the infrastructure

Ensuring network reliability is an increasingly critical concern. With over 300 million terabytes of data created every day worldwide, businesses are fully dependent on the strength and capacity of their network connections to share data effectively.

For context: in 2010, the volume of data created and consumed worldwide was 2 zettabytes.

In 2025, that volume is projected to be 182 zettabytes.

How many businesses are 90 times more digitally capable than they were in 2010? On-site hardware failures are becoming more common as aging technology succumbs to overload and the passage of time.

Connectivity challenges for enterprise

Businesses with a digital presence and IT professionals have to contend with multi-layered challenges when handling expanding connectivity demands, the most pressing being:

Cybersecurity

The increasing number of connected devices on an average corporate network means an increasing in the number of vulnerable surfaces, even if cyberattacks weren’t also growing in sophistication and global scope, obligating organizations to minimize the exposure of their network traffic.

Scalability & flexibility

That the pace of business is increasing is not news to anyone, but how many corporate networks have balanced agility with security? Cloud solutions and modern IT infrastructure need to provide scalability and flexibility and not just protection.

Downtime & disruption

Minimizing downtime is critical for business continuity. The 2024 CrowdStrike-related IT outages crashed 8.5 million systems and cost an estimated €9.5 billion worldwide. Organizations need to ensure high availability and disaster recovery strategies are in place to minimize the impact of service disruptions.  

Regulation & compliance

For businesses subject to regulatory legal frameworks, such as financial service providers, being able to confidently stay compliant with legislated industry standards is becoming increasingly complex. Organizations must ensure that their entire IT infrastructure, including that of home-officed and travelling employees, is robustly compliant.

Rising to the challenge

While the needs of no two enterprise-scale businesses are the same, there are clear trends in which solution methodologies have proven most effective:

Infrastructure

Modern office network architecture, such as SD-WAN and fibre, are already essential to maintain bandwidth and reliability. To maintain competitiveness, upgraded mobile networking is now the key to supporting tomorrow's business applications.  

Strategy

More than just firewalls and encryption, having a holistic cybersecurity strategy is crucial for preventing breaches. Zero Trust architecture is the state-of-the-art for full network security.      

Monitoring

Real-time network performance monitoring, automated operation, and proactive maintenance will identify and resolve issues before they cause disruptions.

To apply these solutions, businesses need to adopt a proactive, fundamental and comprehensive approach to their connectivity. Or, better yet, leverage the expertise of 1GLOBAL to facilitate their transformation with SmartEnterprise.

1GLOBAL & SmartEnterprise

1GLOBAL is the leading provider of global connectivity solutions that empower businesses to connect their people, devices, and networks instantly, anywhere, at scale.

Our SmartEnterprise solution is a hyper-scalable, eSIM-enabled shared data plan designed for international organizations, covering 160+ countries.

Prepaid with no long-term commitment, it provides access to a unique high-speed, enterprise-class global wireless network with significant cost savings.

How SmartEnterprise solves IT connectivity issues 

SmartEnterprise addresses all of the leading IT connectivity challenges:

Cost savings

SmartEnterprise offers barrier-free roaming in 160+ countries with high-speed 5G/4G connectivity, eliminating expensive international charges. Shared plans with no hidden costs mean businesses can manage their budget predictably and effectively.  

Scalability & flexibility

SmartEnterprise plans are tailored to the size and data requirements of organisations, with individual teams being able to draw from a shared pool, meaning that the volume and bandwidth is always where it’s needed most.     

Simple remote management

The 1GLOBAL Connectivity Management Portal (CMP) allows businesses to instantly deploy and remotely manage eSIMs, users, administrators, and phone numbers via a single platform from anywhere in the world for simple, centralized connectivity control of your entire workforce’s global mobility.  

Reduced downtime

1GLOBAL’s unique ‘one core’ architecture includes agreements with multiple local carriers with automatic failover to eliminate downtime.  

Holistic security

1GLOBAL are leading proponents of Zero Trust cybersecurity, which operates on the maxim of ‘never trust, always verify’. Requiring authentication and authorization for every user and device, regardless of geographic or network location, this approach assumes no implicit trust, continuously monitoring and validating access to resources.

Next steps...

Secure, remote, and scalable connectivity is advantageous for business success today - but it’s absolutely essential for any chance of maintaining viable operations in even the shortest-term future forecast.   

International organisations with any kind of digital presence are all feeling the need to address the challenges of IT connectivity and future-proof their strategy.

Done right, this can empower businesses to connect their workforce and devices worldwide, optimize workflows, and drive growth in the new era of connectivity.