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Networking Solutions for Small Business Networking solutions for small business can keep your employees connected and productive whether they are. Small business computer networks help you better compete against larger companies while lowering communications costs, enhancing efficiencies, and improving customer service.
Networking solutions for small business, especially those supporting voice, data, and wireless on one network, offer additional advantages including:
Comprehensive security from hackers, viruses, and other threats
The ability to easily and cost effectively add, move, or change users on the network
The flexibility to add new capabilities as needed without expensive upgrades
Networking Solutions for Small Business: The Elements
The networking solutions for small business comprise these elements:
The small business switches connect multiple devices, such as computers and printers, on the same network. The switch serves as a controller, allowing the devices to share information and talk to each other. Switches save you money, increase productivity, and make it easy to add applications to a network without major upgrades.
The small business routers tie multiple networks together, such as your computer network to the Internet. The networking solutions for small business feature secure, expandable routers that are easy to use and manage. The routers keep your small business computer network secure with technologies like firewalls and virtual private networks (VPNs).
The services cover your entire network investment with service and support offerings especially for the networking solutions for small business.
A peek inside a typical small business today will likely reveal lots of wireless devices, with little, if any, wired hardware in evidence. Problems could occur, however, if the small business deploys consumer centric access points targeted at home users.
This lack of attention towards what is now a business-critical technology can be a threat to productivity, security and the smooth functioning of the business. Here are some important considerations that smaller businesses need to bear in mind to have a safe, reliable Wi Fi network.
A common question often centers on the need for a business grade access point over the many less expensive alternatives with similar specifications. However, it is worth noting that an important premise for a business grade access point is reliability under sustained, heavy usage, which is unlikely to be the case from an access point picked from the bargain bin.
Indeed, Wi Fi studies have shown that even top tier wireless access points do not perform the same when placed under heavy load. Sustained performance aside, IT professionals also know that access points can crash or lock up, which makes robust operation an important consideration.
Of course, access points that are designed for use in business environments also offer a variety of capabilities that allow for more powerful and flexible deployments. We take a closer look at some of them and explain how they can be leveraged for your wireless network.
Support for multiple SSIDs
Unlike consumer access points that typically support just one wireless network, it is often possible to create scores of wireless networks also known as Service Set Identifier (SSID) on a business grade access point.
More importantly, each SSID can be assigned a different access policy for fine grained security, such as being tagged to a different virtual LAN or configured with a different authentication or encryption options.
The most obvious advantage is the ability to support guest users without giving them unfettered access to the network. Businesses can create an Internet enabled SSID isolated from the rest of the corporate network, and either disable it or change its passphrase to revoke access when it is no longer needed. Moreover, additional SSIDs could also be created for devices such as IP cameras, wireless speakers and IoT sensors, leaving the production network untouched.
As small businesses grow beyond a handful of users, it quickly becomes unrealistic and insecure to use the same static passphrase for the entire organization. The solution is to create a new SSID configured for per user authentication, and entails selecting 802.1X under authentication for the new SSID and deploying a corresponding RADIUS server such on the backend.
User accounts could be added directly to the RADIUS database, or synchronized with a directory service such as Active Directory. This allows Wi Fi access to be managed as a seamless part of IT, with user accounts removed as employees leave and added with new hires. To ease the switch over to the new 802.1X enabled SSID, businesses can operate the old SSID in parallel during an initial transitional period.
Finally, it is worth noting that most business access point systems are controller based, which necessitates the use of a controller appliance to manage all access points on the network. An access point can double up as a virtual controller in some cases, though it may entail an additional licensing fee and limits to the size of the Wi Fi network.
Alternatives would be for a non physical controller in the form of a cloud based dashboard for managing access points through the internet.
There is no question that Wi Fi networks will continue to evolve as engineers and device makers seek to support ever denser deployments of wireless gadgets and IoT devices. For now, small businesses are in an excellent position to benefit from wire free productivity with a top notch wireless network.
