Over the past 10 years, C-Suite executives and business owners in virtually every industry have come to depend on secure, reliable, and high-speed wireless networks to power their day-to-day operations. However, this addiction carries complexity and risk.
While its benefits are undeniable, companies that don't have their own IT resources dedicated to Wi-Fi management are often unable to keep their networks running properly. Managed network services provide a cost-effective solution to many of these interrelated problems.
Gartner defines Managed Lan Services as "the provision by a vendor primarily of operational support for a new environment in which hardware assets, responsibilities and personnel remain on the customer's balance sheet."In this article, you'll discover three reasons why your business should use managed network services in 2021.
1) Mobile devices are the main way to access the web (and the rise of the Internet of Things)
What do all these devices have in common?
- Smart phones
- Pills
- Laptops
- Smart watch
They are designed for maximum portability; in most of them you won't even find a place to connect an ethernet cable (some laptops still have it). Now let's take a look at these devices:
- Vending machines
- HVAC systems
- TV sets
- Cameras
- Refrigerators
What do they have in common? Everyone has access to your network through the Internet of Things. According to a new report from Business Insider Intelligence, "... there will be more than 64 billion IoT devices by 2025, compared to approximately 10 billion in 2018."
So while almost every business needs a network infrastructure at every location that runs on physical twisted pair and fiber optic cables, when we look at the devices or "things" that are inside our businesses today, almost all of them are They connect to our networks via Wi-Fi. -Fi and / or mobile. And it changes the nature and complexity of managing our wireless networks.
To ensure your business runs smoothly, you need a constant view of the current state of your network, as well as a way to measure Wi-Fi performance from an end-user perspective in real-time.
This raises two questions for most companies: "How do we do this and who will provide these services?"
If your company has a large in-house IT team with an on-site employee at each location, it might make sense to include an army of corporate Wi-Fi specialists on your payroll.
However, if this seems excessive or too expensive, you are right. In most cases, outsourcing managed network services to a company like SecurEdge is often much more profitable and makes much more logistical and financial sense for most companies.
2) Wi-Fi is now a mission-critical utility
As companies increasingly focus on cloud technology and applications, a one-size-fits-all approach is no longer the best approach to designing and managing our wireless networks.
For example, in the hospitality industry, restaurant owners are already embracing the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve the dining experience, employee efficiency, and profitability - critical to staying competitive.
At the point of sale, guest Wi-Fi is no longer a luxury. Without fast, reliable, and secure Wi-Fi, you'll lose customers and profit. Therefore, to get started, retail owners and operators often have to invest in a dedicated portal to better understand how their wireless infrastructure is being used.
In a healthcare setting, such as a hospital or clinic, medical-grade Wi-Fi is now essential for daily operations (eg electronic medical records, EHR systems).
Think about it: does it make sense to "cheapen" network infrastructure when life is literally at stake? However, the problem is that hospital administrators must provide excellent medical care within the limited resources available.
Another example is higher education, where schools use apps like Moodle, Blackboard, and online tests for their daily work. If the network goes down, they will have no more work to do.
All this means that companies must have a system to manage their networks on an ongoing basis. With the right managed network services solution, you can do it right and with minimal impact on your bottom line.
3) Wi-Fi networks are dynamic (constantly changing)
When many companies invest in wireless infrastructure, they are making a general mistake. They invest in high-performance Wi-Fi equipment like access points, switches, etc., but they don't think long or even medium term about how they will support their new systems over time.
In the days when business networks were relatively static and most devices were connected to the network using an Ethernet cable, in many small environments a very special manual approach to network management could be dispensed with. However, the changing use of Wi-Fi devices in most companies requires a completely different approach to network management.
In other words, even if you have a 100% correct Wi-Fi design, use the best hardware, and have everything installed or designed correctly, things can go wrong.
For what?
Because our wireless networks are constantly changing. The types of devices, the number of devices, the physical environment itself, all change, and this makes most companies very vulnerable to problems with Wi-Fi.
Many companies do not have a strategy to support their wireless networks on an ongoing basis after deployment.
Ten to twenty years ago, if the PC didn't have the latest version of Microsoft Windows or antivirus software installed, this sloppy approach to patching had limited impact. Today, in a world where security breaches, malware, ransomware, phishing, distributed denial of service (DDoS) and social engineering attacks occur with increasing frequency and intensity, any company is a potential target.
In addition to the security threats that businesses face today, they also face the threat of lost revenue due to poor Wi-Fi performance. Every time the network goes down, performance drops. Even if the network is working, if your applications are not working as expected on the network, you still lose revenue, not to mention the long-term impact this can have on the perception of your business, both employees and guests.
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