The Benefits of Wi-Fi 6, Part 1: Unlocking Your Enterprise Network’s Potential
As wireless networking has evolved, each subsequent step has improved speed, security, and bandwidth. With the arrival of the next generation, Wi-Fi 6, it’s important to know how this technology benefits your business with power savings, faster throughput, and intelligent connections that all help your network run more efficiently—yielding savings of both time and money.
An Overview of Wi-Fi 6
Like previous generations, 802.11ax—the technical name for Wi-Fi 6—brings speed and density improvements that prepare your infrastructure to address the networking trends of the future. But how do these benefits serve your business now and directly improve performance of your network, as well as your bottom line? How can you best manage Wi-Fi 6 to maximize its benefits for your organization?
When Wi-Fi 6 was under development back in 2013, experts knew that Wi-Fi would have some major hurdles to overcome in the following years. Once a luxury, decent Wi-Fi has become so commonplace that it is unequivocally expected in business environments. Today, employees and customers are more connected than ever with smart phones, IoT devices, and other draws on bandwidth competing in high-density environments. Wi-Fi 6 is the answer to what was not only a need for legacy devices, but even for devices that hadn’t yet been invented at that time.
Real-World Business Benefits of Wi-Fi 6
Because it is a High Efficiency WLAN, Wi-Fi 6 is positioned to support your business through a multitude of changes expected in the coming decade. By 2022—only 6 months away if you can believe it—IoT connections will likely represent over half of all global connected devices. Wi-Fi 6 offers multi-faceted advantages that bolster your business’s network, helping your legacy devices run slightly faster. But what’s more is that it is set up for more intelligent connections and concurrency, as more Wi-Fi 6 compatible devices arrive on the market.
Around 80 percent of new IoT projects will be wireless by 2022, and Wi-Fi 6 is forecasted to greatly increase power efficiency for these devices. Other benefits for your business include real-world concerns like better network reliability (hugely important for logistics and communications with an increasingly remote workforce), as well as wider coverage ranges for large sites and campus environments.
Finally, for enterprise technology leaders and executives, security is a more relevant and pressing concern than ever before. Wi-Fi 6 brings with it a new security protocol enhancement, WPA33, which makes it more difficult to compromise the countless devices on your network. Initially released in 2018, WPA3 brings with it measurable improvements over its predecessor protocol, including strong resistance to brute-force attacks and more individualized encryption.
Wi-Fi 6 Management and Options
For those looking for an entirely hands-off route to taking advantage of Wi-Fi 6 management, options are key for making the right decision for your organization. Management of Wi-Fi 6 can bring about cost savings in lock step with performance improvements. Networking-as-a-Service (NaaS) offerings like ours provide streamlining of roles and processes internal to your network, yielding reduced operating expenses and a greater sense of control over your network performance and security.
Predictable monthly billing, 24/7/365 monitoring, elimination of enormous capital investment, no worries around warranties and replacements, and patch management all make this fully managed path to utilizing Wi-Fi 6 is a straightforward route to improved operation, coverage, concurrency, and security.
Ready to learn more about how Wi-Fi 6 can power and empower your business with speed and security? Our team of network engineers will work with you to understand your organization’s goals and pain points to create a tailor-made strategy that will scale your network operations with you as your business reach continues to grow.