An Essential Guide to Cloud WiFi
By Haptic Networks
February 26, 2019
Cloud WiFi has been increasingly gaining traction as many enterprises transition from traditional on-premises controllers. Before purchasing Cloud WiFi services, it’s important to consider several factors that directly affect your business.
Between all the marketing campaigns in this highly competitive market, it can be difficult to understand the technical terminology. This essential guide to cloud WiFi breaks down everything you need to know when selecting a cloud WiFi product for your business.
Cloud WiFi is greatly beneficial for geographically dispersed organisations as it allows control of the entire wireless network from a single interface. It’s easy to set up and offers great flexibility.
Exploring these considerations shall be unique to your enterprise. It’s crucial to select one that best meets your business requirements.
Where the cloud WiFi shall be physically placed can highly affect the connectivity. Most enterprise-class WiFi hardware can handle office environments with minor physical obstructions, like cubicles and drywall, but issues may arise in larger facilities.
Additional hardware and software features are often required when operating cloud WiFi in manufacturing plants, outdoor spaces, and retail outlets.
Another crucial factor to consider is knowing where the application and cloud data is stored. It’s ideal to select a cloud WiFi provider that offers 100% survivability, so users can continue to access locally operated applications until the connection is restored.
For critical locations where a majority of applications are served off-site, WiFi redundancy can be built in to serve as a backup mechanism, protecting against connection failure.
Some cloud WiFi services release beta features to get ahead, whilst others wait until the new features and functionalities are fully polished. The deployment shall depend on the cloud WiFi vendor’s approach.
Cloud WiFi products tend to have comparable enterprise-grade hardware for client data transport, but not all APs can handle the same capacity.
Businesses with a concern regarding the radio frequency (RF) space security should consider a cloud WiFi product that offers a dedicated radio that manages the RF environment, providing always-on and real-time security monitoring.
Some services offer similar functionality with a dual-radio AP, but that radio must be taken offline to free up for RF management and security.
Administrators can use visibility and control to identify and set bandwidth maximums to avoid over usage. They also have the ability to create firewall rules that block access to undesired applications.
Some platforms have different application identification and classification features, such as identifying applications based on identifiers that don’t require looking inside each packet. This is effective, however, it compromises accuracy and flexibility when applying policies to certain applications.
Haptic Networks has over a decade of experience and knowledge delivering IT solutions to Education and Public Sector organisations. Contact us for free advice with one of our consultants on how to implement cloud-based WiFi systems!
