5 Things about cloud managed WiFi Networks you should know

Here we summarize the most important things to know about WiFi cloud managed networks.

1.   A WiFi network can include multiple locations

In the case of networks that are managed through hardware controllers, you need a controller for each network / for each location. The assumption “one network, one location” is not valid anymore if your network is managed through the cloud.

2.   A cloud-controlled WLAN is easily manageable

As the WLANs with hardware controllers, the cloud-controlled WLANs have a single point of management and a centralized intelligence to control all the access points of the network. But more than that, cloud-based is centralized even at a multi-location level, while when using controller-based, each controller can manage only the APs of its specific location, as if each Hilton hotel was a separate isolated island, instead of being part of the same chain. This has a practical implication: with hardware controllers, it’s needed to access each location control panel and manage each one individually. On the contrary, cloud based WLANs have a single dashboard to manage all the APs of each location and all the locations without leaving the same dashboard. Cloud-based WLANs boost operational efficiency.

3.   An SSID / a captive portal can be shared between multiple locations

An SSID (with or without captive portal) can be shared between multiple locations, if the access points are in the same network. For example, a network can be composed of a Milan EU Headquarter with 15 access points, a New York Branch Office with 7 access points, and a Shaghai APAC Regional Office with 8 access points, providing a smooth seamless WiFi experience to the multinational employees travelling from one branch to the next one and to guests.

4.   A cloud-controlled WLAN is secure, reliable, resilient, available

Modern advanced cloud based networks implement controller like features, such as roaming of clients among APs with no disconnection, with no need to have the controller, thanks to advanced distributed algorithms that literally implement the control-plane at the premise, with no need for a hardware controller. For example, Tanaza implements a redunded peer to peer communication based among APs which works using 100% local resources. This way there is no dependency on the cloud infrastructure to guarantee that the network remains operational and, having removed the single-point-of-failure of hardware controller-based networks, cloud based WLANs can be more reliable than controller-based WLANs.

5.   Cloud Managed WiFi Networks can be multi-vendor

In the past, only enterprise / mono-vendor networks were easily manageable from the cloud. Each vendor has its own software to manage the access points. Tanaza breaks this assumption and adopts a vendor-agnostic approach. Any access point can be managed through a single, centralized dashboard: multi-vendor networks are cloud manageable, independently from the access points that compose them.