Centuries ago, Sumerians used clay tokens to mark the content and the count of goods such as seeds. This documentation system evolved from tokens to tablets as the number of records grew. Similarly, retailers' productivity skyrocketed when calculators replaced the abacus and using fingers to count. Later, portable computers changed people's lives — they were no longer limited to computers with vacuum tubes where someone walked inside the computer to fix the parts. From PC to laptop, and now the iPhone, which put a computing device in people's palms, technology continues to advance.

The following slideshow from Priya Natarajan, senior director of marketing, Ciena Agility, chronicles how our always-on, data anywhere economy is forcing service providers to make improvements in network efficiency and economies of scale to meet user demands. As nascent technologies, both network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) show promise in preparing the network for the dynamic demands being placed on it — paving the way for people and machines to better communicate and fulfill the consumer's growing appetite for data generation and consumption.