Why Modern Connectivity Has to Be Designed, Not Bolted On

George Stern, Enterprise Connectivity & Security Specialist | Average Read Time: 6 minutes

When most enterprise networks were initially architected, they were designed for a world that no longer exists. A world where users sat at desks. Where applications lived in data centres. Where the perimeter was a thing you could point to on a diagram.

That world is gone. Yet many organisations are still trying to stretch legacy infrastructure to cover use cases it was never designed for (and the cracks are showing).

The Real Cost of Connectivity Failure

The numbers tell a sobering story. Research from IDC reveals that 33% of UK businesses have lost up to £4 million due to network outages or poor performance, with an additional 18% experiencing losses exceeding £4 million. These are missed opportunities, abandoned transactions, and frustrated customers clicking away to competitors.

Following a string of high-profile IT disruptions throughout 2024 and into 2025, half of UK businesses have been forced to fundamentally re-evaluate their technology infrastructure. Networking and connectivity has subsequently rocketed to the top of the investment priority list, with 40% of UK businesses naming it their primary technology investment focus for the next 12 months.

However, an uncomfortable reality remains: increased spending alone will not resolve the issue, particularly if you continue to rely on bolt-on architecture.

The Bolt-On Trap

Most enterprise networks evolved rather than being designed. You started with MPLS for your sites. Then someone needed cloud access, so you added direct connections to AWS. Then Azure. Then Google Cloud. Remote workers needed VPN access, so that got layered on. Security appliances got stacked in the path. SD-WAN got implemented to try to make sense of it all. This simply creates a monster of point solutions, each solving yesterday's problem whilst creating tomorrow's complexity.

This approach has three fundamental flaws:

Inflexibility

Every new requirement means another procurement cycle, another integration project, another vendor relationship. Research shows that 88% of enterprises believe outdated connectivity infrastructure is actively restricting their ability to leverage transformative technologies like AI. When your business needs to move at digital speed, waiting months to provision new connectivity is a competitive disadvantage you can't afford.

Fragmentation

When your network is assembled from disparate components, you lose visibility. You're managing multiple portals, juggling different support contracts, and troubleshooting across vendor boundaries. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of European organisations report that network latency and performance issues present a moderate or significant operational challenge. Often, these problems are actually architectural limitations.

Skills burden

The networking skills gap is real. Research indicates that 40% of UK organisations struggle to find or retain networking professionals - second only to cybersecurity at 44%. When your infrastructure requires specialist knowledge of five different vendor platforms, you're competing for scarce talent while trying to build an entire A-team.

What Designed Connectivity Looks Like

Designed connectivity starts with a different question. Not "what do we need today?" but "what framework will support everything we need tomorrow?" This means treating connectivity as a unified fabric rather than a collection of circuits. It means thinking in terms of capabilities rather than products. And it means choosing platforms that can adapt as your requirements evolve.

Unified management. 

Every connection (whether it's linking your Manchester office to your data centre, connecting to Azure, or enabling remote access for your distributed workforce) should be visible and manageable from a single pane of glass. This is both convenient and operationally critical. When troubleshooting a performance issue, it’s important you see the entire path (as opposed to just the segments your particular vendor manages).

Abstracted delivery. 

Your teams shouldn't need to care about the underlying transport mechanism. Whether it's MPLS, internet, direct cross-connect, or SD-WAN, the platform should abstract those details and present consistent performance characteristics. This is what Network as a Service actually means - fundamentally rethinking how connectivity is consumed.

Rapid provisioning. 

Designed connectivity is programmable. New sites, new cloud connections, new services… these should be available in minutes or hours, enabling the network to keep pace with business change. When a new AWS region launches or your business acquires a competitor, your network should be able to respond at the same pace as your business requirements.

Built-in intelligence. 

Modern networks require application-aware routing that adapts to real-time conditions and service needs. They need to automatically failover when paths degrade. They need to provide telemetry that highlights problems before users notice them. This intelligence can't be bolted on after the fact, it needs to be fundamental to the architecture.

The Sovereignty and Security Dimension

For UK organisations, particularly those in regulated sectors or handling sensitive data, there's another critical consideration: where your network fabric actually resides.

Many global connectivity platforms route traffic through international hubs, which can introduce latency, compliance concerns, and questions about data sovereignty. A UK-based network fabric (with points of presence in key UK data centres) ensures your traffic stays domestic when it needs to, whilst still providing seamless international connectivity when required.

This becomes especially pertinent when connecting to public sector networks like HSCN (Health & Social Care Network) and PSN (Public Services Network), where compliance requirements are stringent and the margin for error is zero.

The Build vs. Buy Paradox

Here's where many organisations get stuck. They recognise the limitations of their current approach but shy away at the perceived disruption of replacing it.

The reality is more nuanced. Modern connectivity platforms are designed to meet you where you are. Already have MPLS circuits? They can integrate via VPN. Have existing cloud connections? They can sit alongside whilst you transition. Operating a hybrid environment during migration is the norm.

The key is starting with a clear picture of the end state and then working backwards to create a pragmatic transition plan. This might mean beginning with a single use case - perhaps connecting new sites via the platform whilst legacy locations remain on existing connectivity - and expanding from there.

Making the Business Case

Convincing stakeholders to move from incremental improvements to architectural change requires framing the conversation correctly.

Time to market: When your sales team identifies a new opportunity that requires network presence in a region you don't currently serve, can you provision that in days or months? It’s important to remember - speed is competitive advantage.

Risk mitigation: What's the cost of a four-hour outage? What about a security breach stemming from an unpatched VPN concentrator? Designed connectivity with built-in redundancy and centralised security policies reduces both the likelihood and impact of these scenarios.

OpEx efficiency: Whilst the initial investment in a proper platform may be higher than adding another point solution, the ongoing operational costs tell a different story. Consolidating vendor relationships, reducing manual configuration, and minimising the specialist skills required to operate the environment all contribute to lower total cost of ownership.

Future-proofing: Technology roadmaps are accelerating. AI workloads, edge computing, private 5G… aren't fiction - they're next quarter's requirements. An inflexible network architecture means you're constantly playing catch-up, but a properly designed platform means you're positioned to adopt new technologies as your business needs them.

How Cloud Gateway Approaches Modern Connectivity

At Cloud Gateway, we believe connectivity should be designed, not bolted on. Our Business Connect and Business Everywhere offerings give you unified, scalable connectivity across sites, clouds, users and data centres - all managed through a single, secure fabric.

What sets this apart isn't just technical capability, it's operational reality. 

Through a unified control plane, your teams gain visibility across your entire connectivity estate. New requirements don't trigger lengthy procurement cycles; they're provisioned through the platform you're already using. And critically, as your needs evolve - whether that's scaling bandwidth, adding new cloud connections, or deploying to new locations - the platform adapts without requiring architectural overhauls.

If your connectivity infrastructure is holding your business back, get in touch to discuss how we can help you build a network that's fit for purpose.