Wi-Fi is more business-critical than ever, which means it also has to be more predictable, reliable and measurable than ever. However, over 90% of the Wireless LAN systems in deployment today are based on outdated architectures that were designed over a decade ago.
The good news is that new technologies have emerged to bring wireless into the modern smart device era. With Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the cloud, we now have the ability to collect and analyse data pertaining like never before, driving operational efficiency in business and delivering unprecedented user experiences. This lets us automate manual operational tasks like packet captures, event correlation, and root cause analysis so that manual configuration and troubleshooting tasks can be eliminated.
In addition, AI provides real time predictive recommendations to provide IT departments a heads up before employees, guests, and customers experience Wi-Fi problems. Eventually, we will achieve a completely self-healing environment, where the network can detect, predict and fix problems before users even know they exist, achieving the ultimate performance and cost savings.
Thought leaders are already taking advantage of AI-driven wireless to bring new automation and insight to IT. At the same time, CIOs are leveraging this technology as a key enabler for strategic business initiatives, such as open seating, video conferencing, campus wayfinding, asset location, and more.
Leading edge IT infrastructure
ThoughtWorks is one organisation that has made the move to AI-driven wireless, and as a result is delivering new IT services not possible even a couple of years ago.
A privately-owned, global technology company with 40 offices in 14 countries, it provides software design and delivery, and pioneering tools and consulting services. To facilitate its fast growth, the IT implementation needed to support a bold new strategy to allow the company to grow in a cost-effective way, support a rapidly changing mobile work environment, and provide a better user experience for all global employees.
Kevin Fenn, global head of networks for ThoughtWorks, quickly realised that a state-of-the-art wireless network was critical to achieving the IT objectives. “We are a Wi-Fi first company,” said Fenn. “Most offices are open seating, with little or no fixed desks, nor wired connectivity. This means the WLAN always has to work consistently, reliably, and with the highest performance. We are also heavy videoconferencing users at ThoughtWorks and as it’s our primary means of communication Wi-Fi stability, performance and roaming are key to a great user experience.”
By switching to an AI-driven WLAN platform in the cloud, Thoughtworks now automates mundane tasks, has improved Wi-Fi reliability, accelerated troubleshooting and has gained new insight into the wireless user experience. They also now leverage APIs to take the Wi-Fi experience to another level.
Are you ready to move to AI-driven wireless LAN?
Companies throughout the world are switching to an AI-driven WLAN in the cloud for multiple reasons. First, they want more agility and scalability that cannot be provided with traditional on-premises solutions. Second, they want more assurance for business-critical applications, with visibility into the user experience. Third, they want to increase the value of the wireless network with location-based services that enhance the experience for wireless guests, employees, and customers.
Below are some qualifying questions to determine if the move to an AI-driven WLAN is for you:
- We have an aging wireless infrastructure and it requires a lot of time investment from IT staff
- We only have a small IT team and they’re already very stretched, we’d like to reduce Wi-FI demands on the IT team
- Demand on our wireless infrastructure is growing daily and our current set-up just won’t keep up
- We seem to be constantly firefighting and troubleshooting wireless problems
- We can’t map wireless usage to identify demand from groups of users, locations or even days or times of day
- We rely heavily on video calls and streaming and we can’t get the speed or reliability we need
- We want to move to a wireless infrastructure that can cope with demands today but also those of the future.