Rachel Rothwell, Regional Director Southern Europe and UK at Zyxel
In a society increasingly-dependent on technology, there is a rising expectation from clients and employees that business networks must seamlessly support their data requirements. For SMB owners and IT managers, this means that easily-accessible and secure business Wi-Fi is no longer a luxury, but a necessity to remain competitive in the modern business world.
Finding the right balance between a network that is flexible and secure has historically been very expensive and complicated. Many smaller businesses have fallen behind with redundant solutions that are often little more than home Wi-Fi networks, that simply don’t offer business-grade bandwidth or security.
SMBs that are at a sensitive stage of growth may will suffer greatly if there is an under investment in their network. Their growth will be restricted if it can’t support their processes or ways of working, or if sub-par network security leads to a network outage or data breach. SMBs therefore cannot afford to be restrictive on increasingly important business requirements such as mobility and security and stump their growth potential.
The future is mobile
Mobile devices are considered by many businesses to be critical to business processes and productivity, so it is essential that network infrastructure is designed to handle this additional traffic. Network segmentation is key to minimising downtime during heavy traffic, with separate staff and guest networks minimising the vulnerabilities associated with multiple network connections.
Profile-based network access will also enable SMBs to establish their own network connection rules, such as which devices have permission to access the network, and the period of time that they are allowed to stay connected.
For SMBs that experience seasonal network peaks and troughs, it is important to have a scalable network that is flexible enough to cope with the added strain of a sudden surge or dip in users and devices joining the network. By implementing visibility and control measures, SMBs can determine when bandwidth demands are at their highest and can plan to boost access in the areas where it’s needed most to balance out supply and demand.
Don’t neglect evolving staff requirements
With the rise of bring your own device (BYOD) culture among the millennial workforce, app usage within business is much higher for both internal and external communications. More and more individuals, especially the younger generation, are attuned to this way of working. This makes it imperative that businesses of all sizes pursue a ‘networking first’ approach, to ensure they can keep new entrants in the workplace in the manner to which they are accustomed. Only then will employers be able to attract the best talent, while supporting fast paced growth and keeping the company assets secure.
Future-proof today
Many SMBs still wrongly assume that they don’t need to invest in business or enterprise class technology, mostly down to the assumption of high associated costs or that they simply don’t have the requirement – but the truth is they do! Businesses of all sizes need to have full visibility of their network. By investing in flexible and low-cost enterprise level cloud managed network solutions, businesses can manage their network on the go and gain insight into network demand to support network flexibility and scale as needed. Rather than adding and upgrading when things start to fall over.
In turn, if investments aren’t made to bolster the network, any security breach, misstep or downtime could cost a small business its livelihood. By bolstering networks with Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP) technology, business owners can be safe in the knowledge that cyber threats are automatically addressed with the most up to date cyber security.
Planning for future threats and demands will stand any SMB in good stead to not only cope with peaks and troughs now, but to plan for the more demanding applications and expectations that come with fast-paced growth.
