As a small business owner, you know that technology plays a critical role in day-to-day function and innovation. To ensure that your business stays ahead of the curve, it's important to future-proof your network infrastructure to scale as your business grows. Here are some best practices to consider as your build your tech arsenal:

1. Plan for scalability: Your business is likely to grow over time, so it's important to choose network infrastructure that can scale as your business expands. This means choosing equipment and technologies that can adapt to changing needs, and ensuring that your network is designed to accommodate future upgrades and changes. Do you have enough machines (physical or virtual)? How easy is it to add more? Seats in a program subscription? The list is long.
2. Embrace virtualization: Virtualization technologies, such as virtual LANs (VLANs) and virtual private networks (VPNs), can help you create a more flexible and scalable network infrastructure. By decoupling network resources from physical hardware, virtualization enables you to adapt your network to changing business needs more easily. This also allows you to hire talent from anywhere, giving you a leg up on the competition.
3. Adopt software-defined networking (SDN): SDN is a networking architecture that enables you to centrally manage and automate your network infrastructure using software. By separating the control plane from the data plane, SDN makes it easier to manage and orchestrate network resources, and provides greater flexibility and agility in responding to changing business needs. – Is this valid?
4. Prioritize security: Your network infrastructure is a critical component of your business, so it's important to ensure that it's secure and resilient. Cyber-attacks are not only more frequent, but also consistently changing in complexity and approach. This means adopting best practices for network security, such as using encryption, implementing access controls, training your team, and regularly updating your security policies and procedures are key to a robust security strategy.
5. Stay up-to-date with technology: Technology is constantly evolving, so it's important to stay current with the latest developments in network infrastructure. This means keeping up with industry news and trends, attending conferences and events, and regularly evaluating your network infrastructure to ensure that it's meeting your business needs. This is also a great reason to make sure you have a team of experts keeping your business in the know of best practices.

Taking each of these points into consideration, you can future-proof your network infrastructure and ensure that your business stays competitive and agile in today's fast-paced digital landscape. Remember that your network infrastructure is a critical investment in your business's future success, so it's important to choose wisely and plan for the long term.

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