The 1:1 and BYOD shifts are continuing to grow in wireless design for education, forcing school districts across the nation to find proper solutions to these trends, while staying in-lin with budgetary restrictions and guidelines. With mobile security, monitoring and 100% up times all standards parents and board members are looking for, schools must find the right wireless solutions.
Knowing the advantages of what a true controllerless wifi solution can provide, should alleviate some of the pressures a district will face when implementing a wireless solution.
So, what is a "true" controller-less solution?
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No Cloud Involvement: The controller is out of the cloud. All functionality is saved if the internet goes down, and all features and access to internal resources can be reached locally. Find our more about Cloud Controlled Wireless vs. Cloud Monitored WLAN.
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Updates: Controlled on your timeline by your staff and team, with zero software to install on a server.
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No Per AP Licensing Fees: NO licensing fees are needed to be paid each year to manage, control and keep your wireless network operational.
So now that controller-less solution has been defined, here are the 6 key advantages a proper controller-less Wi-fi solution should have to save critical budgetary dollars and maximize your IT resources.
1 - Built in Failover and Redundancy: Access points that are all in participation with each other is a MUST as uptime is key (especially during testing) in today's classrooms.
2 - Role Based Access Control: The wireless network solution should be able to integrate with a directory database, and identify users to assign roles based on policies defined and built. These established roles and policies will control where that user has access on the network, as well as limit packets and control bandwidth for the different classes of users.
3 - Scalability: A network that can grow easily is CRITICAL. Choose a controller-less wifi solution that can auto configure if more AP's need to be added in the future.
4 - High Capacity Load Balancing: Wireless solutions with dual band access points can shift 5GHz capable clients to that band, leaving much more crowded 2.4GHz more readily available.
5 - Real Time Power and Channel Setting Adjustments: Solutions with the capabilities of auto adjusting power and channel settings in real time is essential when dealing with radio frequencies that are very hard to diagnose.
6 - Centralized Management: An infrastucture that allows for monitoring the performance of the network and the ability to push out quick changes from a single point is fundamental to lower operational costs. Labor intensive wireless monitoring is no longer an issue since all the management is in a centralized location for easy access and viewing.
For close to a decade, SecurEdge Networks has been providing schools with effective and affordable enterprise level wireless solutions. Let us help you as you continue researching the proper solution for your school or district.
Contact us here with further questions or to schedule a free consultation.
