Why Cloud – 3 Reasons why
In 2011, digital music sales outstripped physical sales for the first time ever. Revenue from the iPhone and iPad now account for 72% of Apple’s total revenue and yet neither item could be bought ten years ago. Every 4 minutes – 694,000 songs are downloaded illegally.
The cloud has become a common phrase in the world of technology. Those somewhat fluffy words have become a reality for enterprises across the globe. So much so, that it’s hard to believe cloud computing only came into existence in the year 2000. When it comes to technology, I doubt that any other two words have created as much confusion and controversy.
We’re living in exponential times. With 31 Billion searches on Google every month, 600 tweets per second and an estimated 4 exabytes (4.0×10^19) of unique information generated this year – we cannot afford not to be adopting the cloud.
So why is cloud network management important?
Simply put cloud network management is a computer network that is managed in the cloud. It’s therefore heavily dependent on the internet and is especially beneficial to companies with multiple locations and companies looking to expand over time. Having spent some time researching cloud network management, the benefits are obvious, below are three areas I think provide the most obvious value.
Ease of implementation
Cloud-managed design makes management easier. With cloud managed designs, there’s no need to deploy controllers on each site. The cloud provides remote accessibility to control the entire network regardless of where the IT staff are located.
Zero-touch deployments allow non-technical staff to simply connect the device to the network, after which it will be installed and configured automatically. This, in my opinion is one of the biggest benefits of cloud-networking; which is especially important for businesses with insufficient IT professionals.
Another obvious benefit of cloud-based WLANs is the number of access points (APs) that the cloud can handle. When it comes to expanding your network infrastructure or setting up a new site location, cloud-managed solutions can support your company with a single AP, in a single location but equally it can support your company at multiple sites from hundreds of APs. So the number of APs is unlimited. This means cloud-networking provides superior scalability – all without the need to purchase additional hardware controllers.
Centralised
If you’re a small business in only a single location, with dreams to expand, or you’re a larger business with sites geographically dispersed, cloud managed WLAN will suit your organisation.
As cloud-managed access points can self-configure through the cloud, non-IT employees on the distributed sites just need to plug the devices in and turn them on, and then administrators can perform provision, monitoring and diagnostics from a remote location.
Total cost of ownership
Whether you’re a large or small business, cloud-based systems allow everyone to use the same functionalities and tools, with minimally staffed IT departments.
In a cloud-managed WLAN architecture, organisations don’t have to purchase physical controllers and deploy them on every site. The “cloud” mentioned here works like a virtual controller that actually reside in a public cloud, and all the distributed wireless access points connect to it via the internet. The cloud offers remote provisioning, monitoring and troubleshooting to every access point. The cloud-managed WLAN services, which are usually provided with a subscription, give you more flexibility. The cloud will take care of the issues such as data backup, storage, redundancy and more.
