WiFi is mission critical. It’s the “bread and butter” for most verticals, the resource that makes everything else possible. Without it, productivity comes to a halt as no one can communicate with remote sites, place orders, speak to customers, design products, handle financial matters, or do any of the other many tasks that make up a business.
This dependency is accepted as fact, but so is the challenging reality that no WiFi network is issue-free. With so many business priorities requiring a reliable network, issues need to be eliminated as quickly as possible. This is why WiFi automation is a necessary component of any business network.
What is WiFi automation?
WiFi automation is a mix of hardware and software that work together to automate the analysis of network health and performance as well as the identification of network issues. The technology is designed to simplify network optimization, restoring time and energy to IT teams, and money to companies. It does this by transforming the analytics process from manual and reactive to automated and proactive.
This is accomplished with artificial intelligence systems that learn to recognize normal and abnormal network behavior through 24/7 passive network analysis and scheduled testing. With this understanding, issues can be both identified before they impact end users and resolved faster than ever. Some platforms will also automatically suggest actionable resolutions to further improve resolution times.
The platforms complement the WiFi management systems of access points by providing detailed analytics for both a company’s core WiFi network as well as the wider RF environment. Platforms can be vendor agnostic, which allows them to identify all issues on a network and to be used across all organizational sites.
The benefits of WiFi automation
Whether used by enterprises, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, manufacturing and warehousing businesses, or other industries, WiFi automation provides these benefits:
- Improved operational efficiency thanks to proactive, 24/7 analytics
- Faster resolution times thanks to automatic alerts, suggested resolutions, and remote troubleshooting
- Future-proofed, budget friendly network upgrades thanks to historical analytics
- Improved user experience thanks to faster resolution times and fewer WiFi network issues
WiFi automation in 2022
Here is a look at how certain industries saw these benefits in 2022:
1. Manufacturing - WiFi automation adoption in the manufacturing industry was driven in turn by the increase in manufacturing automation and the growing variety of WiFi enabled devices within these facilities.
The WiFi automation platforms deliver the constant, real-time analytics that are needed to ensure business continuity in these environments. These platforms analyze the behavior of thousands of devices in real-time, which means that IT professionals never miss out on the data and analytics needed to resolve network issues. Some platforms will also automatically save historical analytics, giving IT the ability to review network performance from times when they were not on site.
This combination of real-time and historical analytics also supports the multiple shift work cycle often found in manufacturing. With WiFi automation, the hand-off on analytics from shift to shift is seamless: the platforms continue analyzing the entire network environment, identifying problems, and suggesting resolutions regardless of who is or isn’t onsite.
2. Healthcare - An increase of mobile devices to support access to information on-the-go and in real-time significantly boosted the healthcare industry’s reliance on WiFi in 2022 and is why organizations benefited from WiFi automation. Whether supporting tablets, patient monitoring systems, or remote consultations, reliable, high-performing WiFi supports the life-saving work of medical professionals. WiFi automation delivers the constant, real-time insights, remote and automated troubleshooting, historical analytics, and end user quality metrics that are needed for reliable and future-proofed healthcare networks.
3. Education - Both K-12 and university-level educational institutions benefit from WiFi automation. The technology’s proactive analytics, constant network visibility, and vendor agnostic design are needed to support the dramatic proliferation of mobile devices caused by more emphasis on E-learning initiatives, a growing number of personal devices in university student housing, and high-density classrooms across the board.
WiFi automation and WiFi 6E
2022 also saw the introduction of WiFi 6E devices. These devices are the only devices allowed to operate in the new unlicensed 6GHz wireless spectrum. As more devices enter the market, WiFi automation helps organizations simplify the upgrade process and protect network performance by:
- Providing the historical analytics needed to determine which areas of an organization will see the most improvement from an upgrade. As upgrades are expensive and time-consuming, these analytics provide needed insight so that budgets are allocated for the best user experience.
- Provide real-time analytics and end user quality metrics before, during, and after the upgrade so that IT professionals know if the upgrade is having the desired effect and can resolve any incompatibility issues as soon as they occur.
The future of WiFi automation
In 2023, the overall demand for WiFi automation is going to continue to increase dramatically due to the explosion of IoT devices, greater dependency on WiFi connectivity, more demand for multimedia services, teleworking, and the adoption of new WiFi technology such as WiFi 6E and eventually WiFi 7.
WiFi automation will be needed to support mobile users anywhere, whether that be in the office, working from home, or while traveling. This will require solutions that can scale to support the global workforce both remotely and onsite. We can also expect to see advances in the AI technology that powers WiFi automation. These advances will be necessary to support the dynamic nature of next-generation WiFi networks. These will include more data-intensive technologies like virtual reality, automated reality, and a growing dependence on video and real-time collaboration platforms. Additionally, advanced AI will be needed to identify the root causes of what will be an increasing number of intermittent performance related issues that will arise as networks grow in complexity and density.
As was seen in 2022, complex networks cannot be optimized in real-time without automation. 2023’s technology advancements will only enhance the need for these platforms. Now is the time to make WiFi automation an IT partner.
