The 2025 edition of the Digital Infrastructure Conference in Milan has concluded, leaving a series of crucial takeaways for the future of network infrastructures. From conversations at our booth to the technical sessions, three recurring themes emerged that every professional in the industry should consider.
Here are the 3 key lessons we learned.
1. Validation is No Longer Optional—It's the Core of AI Strategy
The conversation is no longer about if you should test, but how to test realistically. The focus has shifted from simple connectivity checks to the simulation of complex, real-world workloads. It became clear that using tools capable of emulating "incast" traffic and microbursts, such as the Spirent TestCenter, has become a fundamental requirement to ensure the ROI of AI hardware investments. Without precise validation, expensive GPUs sit idle, waiting for an unoptimized network.
2. Latency is the New Performance Metric (and Microseconds Matter)
Bandwidth alone is no longer enough. For technologies like RDMA (RoCEv2), every microsecond of latency can cripple the efficiency of an entire training model. Technical discussions confirmed that precise and reliable latency measurement, like that offered by Calnex solutions, is critical. Leading companies are adopting a "latency-first" approach to designing and validating their network fabrics.
3. The Partner Ecosystem is Essential for Solving Complex Problems
No single vendor can solve the complex challenges of modern Data Centers alone. Our partnership with Spirent and Calnex was a practical example of this: combining large-scale traffic emulation with high-precision measurement provides a complete view that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. The most important lesson is that collaboration and integration between specialized solutions are the key to building truly robust and future-proof infrastructures.
For those who couldn't attend, or for anyone wishing to dive deeper, we are sharing the full recording of our speaker, Marco Bielli (Sales Manager at Spirent Communications). In his speech, Marco details the available options and concrete use cases, explaining the testing and optimization strategies necessary to tackle this new era.
These insights confirm that the industry is moving towards a more scientific and methodical approach to network testing.
