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Enterprises and companies are going digital and harnessing the benefits of data management, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and decision-making analytics. As organizations move forward with their digital transformation efforts and become more dependent on wireless networks, the importance of investing in the latest-generation network technology becomes clear.
Wi-Fi 6 is a new generation of wireless network technology that allows routers to simultaneously interact with a number of devices with a network throughput rate that is up to four times faster than what businesses are currently using, with four times the capacity.
This new wireless standard is expected to open up new possibilities in network connectivity because of its much-improved speed, control, and capacity. It will not only support existing applications, but it will also give organizations the ultimate user experience. What’s more, it will further drive new innovations that could be yet another game changer for enterprises and revolutionize how people work.
To put things simply, Wi-Fi 6 delivers a much more dependable and consistent network connection. And it is designed to support other technology changes in the near future. It is used in an internal, closed environmental setting to provide in-house connectivity for an enterprise plant, branch, or factory.
Also read: Poll: Digital Transformation Drives Growth of NetOps
How Wi-Fi 6 Will Help in Digital Transformation
Wi-Fi 6 will help in an organization’s digital transformation in a variety of ways. These include:
1. Improve Company Communications
As corporate communications shift from more conventional forms — face-to-face interactions, email, and voicemail — it will utilize and engage more multimedia formats. Wi-Fi 6’s significantly improved network capacity and data speeds will ensure that communication will go as smoothly as never before, regardless of how many people are using the channels. Wi-Fi 6 will support superior video and audio conferencing tools and will ensure that any communication and multimedia equipment updates are supported.
2. Transition Away from Cloud
Wi-Fi 6 is an in-house technology and can support buildings, factories, branches, and campuses. That means organizations no longer have to rely on the cloud and spend on third-party cloud services because they can host data on their own local network infrastructure. Organizations will be on top of their data and can do real-time data processing. So instead of paying for cloud service providers and third-party computer experts, they can invest in having their own IT support team.
3. Enable More Flexible IT Workflows
Having your own IT personnel handle all data processing and digital transformation processes will make things much easier and workflows more flexible. And that’s because there’s no other IT team that knows all aspects of your operations better than your own. Imagine your IT’s growth potential when your team doesn’t have to coordinate third-party providers and are given the trust and opportunity to take care of all your IT-related challenges.
Additionally, investing in a more capable IT team will be more empowering for the organization as they will share the same corporate end-goal. How? For third-party providers, the objective is mainly to make you, as their client, happy and satisfied with their service. But with your own bigger team of IT experts, their goal aligns with whatever your organization sets its eyes on, whether it be expansion, better quality products, or even world domination.
4. Better Data Security
Wi-Fi 6 ensures improved security by extending security features to the infrastructure. New security features enhance threat detection with Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) and make way for better interference and rogue detection. With Wi-Fi 6, WPA3 or Wi-Fi Protected Access is certified and this provides a higher value proposition compared to WPA2 for enterprise networks. It also offers enhanced security for open networks with robust password protection, unauthenticated traffic encryption, and superior data reliability with 192-bit encryption of sensitive information. In addition, with data processing done in-house you can ensure that all data stays within the organization.
Also read: Using Wi-Fi 6 and 5G to Build Advanced Wireless Networks
Catering to Evolving Network Requirements
As an enterprise, you may have begun your digital transformation, gradually easing your organization into adapting more technologies and applications one department at a time. And while this is a good strategy, technology does pick up at a fast pace. Before you know it, the IT infrastructure you have set up needs an upgrade.
The more technologies or applications an enterprise integrates into its system, and the more data it needs to process in real time for its business operation, the greater the network capacity and speed they require. For this specific challenge, the solution lies in Wi-Fi 6.
Wi-Fi 6 will cater to an enterprise’s network requirements and will help it ease its way towards digital transformation. Wi-Fi 6’s much greater capacity, as well as its on-premise setup will also allow enterprises to run their own high-speed wireless networks and put up internal micro data centers in remote plants and facilities. It also means that communication, security, and IT workflows within the organization are better, smoother, and more seamless.
Read next: Democratizing IT for Rapid Digital Transformation
