Cloud-based management for enterprise grade Wi-Fi - A match made in heaven!
There are so many Wi-Fi solutions available today that it can be tough to narrow it down to the best one for your business. Of course, you want one that is affordable and provides support for mobility and the internet of things (IoT) devices which are transforming your business. But maybe something, that as an IT person, is even more important – you want a wireless solution that is easy to manage and doesn’t require you to be on-premises to do so.
For that, a cloud network management solution could be the answer you’re searching for.
On cloud 9
Although we’d all like to be on cloud 9 all day and night, that’s probably not reasonable. However, an ideal network management solution could get you close. Whether it is based in the cloud or locally, it is one that is easy to use and provides many capabilities such as a heatmap, application visibility and analytics in a secure environment.
Heatmap
What do I mean by heatmap? A heatmap will help you figure out where to place access points such that they provide efficient, optimal coverage. This capability is very handy when it comes to planning access point placement so that Joe in accounting never has to worry about connecting because the signal is too weak, or keeping Jane in software development connected with enough bandwidth along with 20 other programming colleagues.
Analyze this
Analytics is a useful tool for understanding how your network resources are being used. A good Wi-Fi management solution provides tools to help you see which applications are running on your Wi-Fi network so that you can optimize guest and employee resource use rates. Joe in accounting, when he’s wearing his payroll hat, should have more bandwidth than someone’s kid who came to work with their father and is taking up bandwidth playing video games.
Your network shouldn’t require an advanced engineering degree
You also want your network management solution to be simple to use yet have advanced management capabilities for your day-to-day WLAN operations. A small company where everyone wears many different hats can’t afford to have one person spend all their time managing the Wi-Fi.
Also, being simple shouldn’t preclude you from deploying a Wi-Fi solution managed through the cloud especially for small to mid-size customers and when customers are geo-distributed with limited IS/IT resources. It should be scalable even if it is simple to manage.
Keep more money in the bank and Pay as-you-grow
A simple Wi-Fi/cloud management solution should help you keep more money in the bank or free-up cash for other uses, like bonuses, pay raises or core business investments! An ideal solution offers a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). It even offers you cost control with a “pay-as-you-grow” acquisition model. And, being in the cloud, it has zero footprint and zero touch devices deployment.
The mobile worker
Every business – whether their employees work from home, on the road, or within the office – needs to be able to support mobility in their network to leverage its benefits. You need to provide your users, whether employees or office guests, with easy connectivity that is secure. Security can be provided through captive portals for your guests, visitors, contractors and employees.
Does a true, enterprise class Wi-Fi (802.11ac Wave 2) network exist?
Yes.
All the above characteristics can be found today in an offer from Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. One that a small, medium or large-sized enterprise could benefit from. It is designed on a revolutionary distributed intelligence architecture to deliver high performance, high availability and scalability for companies of any size.
Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista® Cirrus cloud-base network management offers heatmapping, application visibility and advanced analytics. And when paired with Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Stellar Wi-Fi you get a solution that is operationally simple with low TCO. It is a future proof solution built on the latest technologies, innovations and services.
The special offer
Check out ALE’s Stellar offer! For a limited time, when you buy OmniAccess Stellar Wave 2 access points at special pricing conditions, you get your OmniVista Cirrus cloud-based network management tools 6 months free for 1-year subscription and 18 months free for 3-year subscription!
If you’re not sure that it’s right for you, read more about it here: http://conversation.alcatel-lucent.com/stellar-cirrus-promo
Vicki Vaughn
Web content managerVicki has over 25 years of telecom industry experience as a writer and editor of marketing materials for various channels.
Currently in the Central Marketing group of ALE, Vicki is a web content manager where she ensures the quality and general content of the public website. Her previous telecom industry roles include writing and editing technical and marketing materials, PR, IR and has supported ALE patent efforts as a U.S. patent agent.
Prior to telecom, she worked several years as a product manager for a software engineering company and prior to that as a CAD/CAM software programmer. Recently, she became a Registered Patent Agent with the USPTO. Prior to that accreditation, she earned a J.D. in Law from Abraham Lincoln University, an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California with an emphasis on brand marketing and a B.S.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan.
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