Is Your Wireless Network Rock-Solid?
Let’s start out with a question: what is the most critical component of your organization? i.e. without it, your company simply could not function. Is it your product? Your intellectual property? Your workforce? There are good arguments to be made for each of these. However, our vote goes to IT infrastructure, specifically your network. Not very glamorous or flashy it’s true – but think about your business. How many times do you access your organization’s network? Per day? Per hour? Meetings, phone calls (if you use VoIP), emails, sales, financials, marketing, research, processing and tracking orders, shipping product, analyzing performance…the list goes on. The network (both wired and wireless) most likely plays a leading role in virtually every activity you, your employees, colleagues, and customers perform.
Since your wired and wireless network is at the heart of your organization’s daily functions, it must be as strong and reliable as possible before you invest a single dollar in additional IT. IoT? Mmmm, looks nice! Artificial intelligence? Wow, that could transform your business! New, flashy technologies are popping up all the time and yes, they could very well streamline and revolutionize your workflow. But before you take a single step in this direction, take a good, hard look at your network and make sure it can handle everything you plan to throw at it.
Super highway. Command center. Heart. Foundation. No matter the metaphor, your networks are vital. Cloud services, IoT, AI— all demand tremendous bandwidth and require a network that is agile, flexible, efficient, and secure. If your wireless network is not up to the task, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Start with an IT Road-map
If you are looking to integrate new IT tools such as IoT, cloud services or AI into your organization’s IT environment, it’s important to first establish exactly what that environment is and what you want it to be in the future. That’s where an IT road-map comes in.
Start with a wireless network assessment. What is the health of your network? Map out your current IT infrastructure. Look at the performance and age of IT assets, your network’s capacity, costs and dependencies.
Then, lay out your goals. Where do you want your IT infrastructure to be in the future? What will success look like? Once you’ve laid out where you are and where you want to be, the next step is to plot how to get there. What is your wireless networking strategy? What kind of access points do you need? How many? Where? What security challenges will you face? How can you prevent cyber-security threats? How do you know who is on your network? Do you need SD-WAN if traditional WAN can’t keep up with IoT traffic?
Also be thoughtful about what you need these new technologies to accomplish. What are you doing with the data? IoT deployments can allow businesses to collect data, move it around, and analyze it in an enlightening way. These tools can be extremely powerful and transformative for businesses. But their power deserves respect and requires the appropriate foundation and groundwork to be solid.
Not sure where to start for your road-map? Work with a respected wireless network solution provider with a track record of taking time to understand your environment and can assess, plan, design and deploy the solutions you need for your network and your future. Want to get started right away? Reach out to Comport to create a Network Foundation to support your business.
