What is Managed Wi-Fi and What are its Advantages?
In today’s tech-savvy and on-demand world, employees rely on secure and quick Wi-Fi connections to execute their day-to-day activities. Consumers expect all businesses to provide free, efficient, reliable, and safe Wi-Fi access. However, many companies across various industries are still failing to realize the importance of high-speed Wi-Fi and the advantages it brings to their table.
As the demand for high-speed internet continues to grow exponentially, many employees started to realize this expectation where they believe they no longer “want” but “need” this fast and reliable internet to be efficient and productive.
Various businesses are grappling with this new expectation articulated by these employees, and many are shifting to managed Wi-Fi solutions offered by third parties to fulfil this demand. But what even is managed Wi-Fi? How does it work, and how could it benefit my business?
Have no worries because here in this article, we will discuss what a managed wi-fi and unmanaged Wi-Fi is and the advantages of having a managed Wi-Fi solution.
Before we dive any deeper, we highly recommend that you read over our “A Deeper Dive on Wi-Fi” blog post as it will help you understand many topics that we are going to cover in this article.
What is Managed Wi-Fi?
Essentially, managed Wi-Fi is an outsourced wireless network solution that enables tenants, visitors, or customers within a building to connect to the internet via multiple access points, providing property-wide access.
This solution is a cloud-based technology, which means the third-party IT provider remotely monitors, regulates, and troubleshoots a company’s or building’s Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for an on-site IT department to manage a property’s Wi-Fi network. The third-party provider negotiates with the building owner to determine how and where the access points will be distributed, then tracks the performance and usage.
Managed Wi-Fi is built to maximize Wi-Fi efficiency while reducing costs and mitigating the burden from internal IT teams of maintaining a Wi-Fi network on top of several other essential duties.
What is Unmanaged Wi-Fi?
Now that we have learned what managed Wi-Fi is, we must cover unmanaged Wi-Fi as they act as complete opposites. Unmanaged Wi-Fi is a Wi-Fi system that is operated entirely by internal staff members. It is a network system that heavily relies on an on-site IT team to handle, track, troubleshoot, upgrade, fix, monitor, and secure a network. Generally, unmanaged Wi-Fi has low bandwidth rates and can only have a few devices connected to it at any given time.
Because unmanaged Wi-Fi has a lower upfront cost, many businesses may find this solution more appealing. However, in the long term, when you consider downtime, on-site IT teams, efficiency, and scalability, managed Wi-fi solutions can be much more of a cost-effective method.
The 5 Key Advantages of a Managed Wi-Fi Network
Many advantages come with using a managed Wi-Fi. If you are still uncertain whether managed Wi-Fi is worth your company’s investment, here is the list of five major business benefits of using a managed Wi-Fi to help you decide.
Managed Wi-Fi is Cost-Effective in the Long-term
There are various reasons why a managed Wi-Fi solution is cost-effective in the long-term. First, it significantly decreases the companies’ cost of ownership because having a third-party Wi-fi provider allows the company to cut any costs associated with the need for an on-site IT department.
Second, the cost of ownership is transparent when you outsource to a third-party wi-fi provider. Lastly, having a certified professional manage your wi-fi enables them to offer the best deals for long-term licenses, maintenance, and other cost-effective options that your IT team may not have been aware of.
Managed Wi-Fi is More Secure
Whether you like it or not, if your company’s network isn’t secure or has poor security configurations, it won’t be very long until your company’s network gets hacked. According to research from the University of Maryland, studies showed that a hacker would attack computers with internet access every 39 seconds. This means by the time you get up and get back to your computer from a quick bathroom break; the next hacker attack has already taken place.
Hackers and cybercrimes are the reasons why we believe having a managed wi-fi provider, in terms of security, is a better option than an internal IT department. These security professionals are experienced, certified, and have the knowledge to set up the most secure networks and admin controls. They can also authenticate connections and observe networks for potential attacks, making it more difficult for hackers to breach into your network.
Having a professional actively update your network severely decreases risk and your company’s vulnerabilities.
Detailed Monitoring and Reporting
Perhaps one of the most significant benefits of a managed wi-fi service is being able to gain insights into your company’s network utilization. With the newly implemented enterprise-grade systems, managed wi-fi providers now have the tools to control all your access points from a single controller. This new function is extremely beneficial and convenient as it allows your managed wi-fi provider to oversee all your business locations' wireless performance via an easy interface.
Providers also use additional network management tools, such as firewalls and gateway controllers, to obtain a deeper understanding of which business applications and users consume the most bandwidth. Most conventional IT providers just don’t know how to analyze this, but a managed Wi-Fi provider, like Cabco, has the tools and expertise to figure it out.
Managed Wi-Fi is Highly Scalable
One of the most convenient features of using managed Wi-Fi is that providers can easily add fresh access points or Wi-Fi extenders to the areas of a building that have bad internet connections. This feature is particularly beneficial for big, multi-unit apartment complexes, large national warehouses, hospitals, chain-retail stores, and enterprise offices.
With most managed Wi-Fi solutions, they generally provide access points that can be regulated by a unified management system. Additionally, not only does a managed Wi-Fi have multiple access points (can have up to a hundred access points for large properties), but these access points can also handle hundreds of devices per access point individually. This attribute makes managed Wi-Fi so crucial and convenient because of its ability to successfully enable your business to scale as they grow.
Managed Wi-Fi Increases Productivity
Getting disconnected from the internet hinders your entire team and needs hours of third-party assistance and preparation through various internal departments to address problems that could be reasonably easy for a specialist to resolve.
With the removal of network management duties, IT workers are available and can be diverted to other more strategic projects for their company and employee productivity can be less influenced by network downtime. Thus, the need to buy, install, and configure a network infrastructure is removed, saving IT staff’s valuable hours.
Make Connections that Matter
As Atlantic Canada’s oldest independent communications integrator, we have customers who have been trusting us for 40 years, managing all their telecommunication needs to keep them connected. The following bullet list highlights what we provide in our managed Wi-Fi services and how we separate ourselves from our competitors.
Off-site active monitoring
Software and security updates
Professionally designed heat mapping and RF surveys
Small and Enterprise Business Solutions
Advanced hardware replacement
We Are Here to Help!
Here at Cabco’s learning centre, we hope to answer any questions or concerns our customers might have. After reading this article, if you still have more questions about managed Wi-Fi or our other Wi-Fi solutions, feel free to email us at sales@cabco.ca or call us at (902) 468-2252.
YoungHoon Choi
Digital Marketing Associate
Cabco Communications Group