Blog Protecting IT Infrastructure Spend with Software Driven Networks.

Written by Stuart Pass, Chief Technology Officer at Qolcom

Wired and Wireless Networks form a major part of any organisation’s IT infrastructure, in fact it is the foundation upon which all other IT services are built and delivered.

Most organisation’s initial investments in wireless capability were seen as a nice-to-have, a secondary connection method for networked computers and devices, however that has changed in more recent years. Wireless is increasingly the primary, and in many cases, the only method for network connectivity and communication. As this dynamic has shifted then so too has the level of investment required to provide a robust, business-critical wireless network infrastructure.

These new investments need to be protected, a wireless (and wired) network infrastructure that can grow and flex as requirements and technologies shift. A network infrastructure that won’t throw up any nasty surprises, 24 or 36 months into their lifespan. An infrastructure that just works.

Software is often the answer to protecting this investment and ensuring the relevance of the wireless network.

In the past software has monitored the network and provided a layer of management to configure devices, but it has never provided much intelligence about the network or relieved the burden on IT teams when issues occur. The use of software-driven tools to configure the network, record telemetry data from the network and provide analytical analysis of that data are on the rise.

Software can deliver a consistency of user experience across your network, by ensuring that staff and visitors are given access to the correct systems with the correct permissions whether they have connected to the network using wireless, a wired connection or remotely. Once connected, the software tools can monitor the performance that the users are experiencing and report on end-to-end service metrics.

Any such systems must be able to work with a whole myriad of different networking and security products, meaning the overheads of IT staff to perform manual changes to individual devices is highly reduced. Additionally, the IT team will have much better insights into who is using the network, from which devices and which locations.

Intelligent software solutions should be considered as part of any modern network procurement and can offer significant benefits to an organisation in tackling the challenges of quality, security and investment protection.