In the face of a lockdown event that has forced many employees to work from home, businesses have had to accelerate certain aspects of their digital transformation strategies to enhance their resilience.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) and remote workforce enhancements in collaboration have been key focus areas to enable working from home securely. However, unresolved questions include the annual cost of providing traditional LAN connectivity across the business premises for a workforce that is likely not to be entirely deskbound any longer, and the clumsy manual connections needed to use VPNs for secure connection from home.

Enterprise-grade Wi-Fi solutions are the answer.

An enterprise-grade Wi-Fi solution at offices allows CIOs to reduce spend on switches and eliminate the need to deploy network points to desks. A well-designed Wi-Fi network uses overlapping cells to ensure there is redundant coverage to eliminate single points of failure, an important part of building resilience into Wi-Fi deployments. New Wi-Fi technologies like Wi-Fi 6 allow more devices to communicate to the access point at a time, making cabled networks less attractive.

Wi-Fi has come of age, and its simplicity, security and flexibility make it the perfect solution for today’s and tomorrow’s agile workplace. It’s also a must for any Internet of things initiatives on any of your sites.

Enterprise Wi-Fi can also be extended to employees’ homes. Access points can be put into encrypted tunnel mode and sent to employees to be plugged into their home fibre or ADSL router. The access point will build a secure tunnel between itself and the wireless controller (housed at head office or in the cloud) and start broadcasting the business’s SSID (or network name).

More elegant

Connecting to that SSID will effectively mean that the remote employee is “in” the office and will not require a VPN. It’s a more elegant solution and reduces the need for powerful security appliances to handle all the VPNs needed when large numbers of employees work from home. However, because of the cost implications, this solution should only be considered for employees who work predominantly from home.

There’s consensus that 2020 will shift the way we live and work. What better time, then, to focus on ways to simplify how we work in this new world and save on infrastructure that is no longer necessary?

three6five has collaborated with Ruckus, a leading provider of Wi-Fi technologies, to come up with innovative solutions like these to solve the most challenging of business outcomes. With more than 30 000 access points deployed for customers, there is always a solution that fits.

About three6five
Formed in 2009, three6five delivers world-class professional network services to enterprises and carriers across Africa. We pride ourselves on a rigorous approach to IP services that satisfies our customers’ business needs. As an end-to-end IP network and systems solutions provider, three6five has the technical skills to design, supply, upgrade and build resilient networks. Best-of-breed products from leading vendors provide us with the equipment and infrastructure to monitor, maintain, support and secure those networks now and into the future. Follow three6five on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, or visit the company’s website.