Extreme Networks: Powering the digital renaissance

Only 2% of companies believe they were fully prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Though the rapid, forced adaptation to remote working undoubtedly accelerated digital initiatives, 2024 offers a new opportunity. This is the first year since Covid began that businesses are genuinely free of pandemic-related constraints, and can now focus on digitisation as a strategic imperative rather than a knee-jerk reaction.

This is how businesses can prioritise digital transformation in the post-pandemic era (with a little help from Extreme Networks).

Post-Covid digitisation

As remote and hybrid working settles in as the new norm, the demand for robust wireless infrastructure has never been greater. Businesses need to extend the reach of their wireless networks to seamlessly support colleagues who work away from the office, as well as to meet evolving connectivity requirements.

Adaptability to evolving work models: The traditional office-based 9-5 has given way to a more flexible set-up. Networking solutions such as wireless access empower businesses to seamlessly adapt to these evolving work models, ensuring employees remain collaborative and productive from any location, without compromising on the quality of connection.

Enhanced collaboration and productivity: By integrating advanced networking features, organisations can enhance the overall efficiency of their collaborative workflows. From faster file-sharing capabilities to low-latency communication channels, cloud networking and wired access solutions offer a smoother and more responsive working environment, leading to a significant boost in staff productivity.

Flexibility and scalability: Scalability is a top priority in the post-Covid era. Businesses need networks that can easily scale and flex to accommodate fast-changing workloads, enabling them to efficiently manage resources and maintain optimal performance. With enhanced security features designed to actively monitor and analyse potential risks, modern solutions offer real-time insights that help strengthen systems against cyber threats, even when they’re expanding to meet increased demand. This empowers organisations to stay agile and responsive, creating an environment where growth is supported by a robust and adaptable infrastructure.

Dealing with unprecedented demand

The growth in digital demand means businesses are battling to keep their staff connected. With employees dependent on high-speed networks to keep them online, organisations must ensure they have reliable and high-performance connectivity in place, even in densely populated spaces.

Improved network efficiency: In high-density environments, everyone is sharing higher bandwidth in smaller spaces. This can limit the effectiveness of technology solutions, slowing staff down and causing connectivity issues. Innovative wireless access solutions, with features such as smart antennas and advanced traffic management, work to optimise signal strength, mitigate interference and enhance overall network efficiency in densely populated spaces.

Seamless device roaming: In high-traffic workspaces, such as offices or public venues, users often experience disruptions in connectivity when moving between different access points. This impacts the usability of mobile devices, causing delays, frustrations and a less-than-seamless user experience. Solutions that incorporate fast roaming capabilities and smooth handover protocols ensure that devices can transition between access points quickly and easily, maintaining continuous connectivity without interruptions – even in densely populated areas.

The dawn of SD-WAN

The evolving digital landscape poses a significant challenge for service providers as they strive to adapt their technology offerings to meet the changing needs of modern organisations. As businesses work to digitise their operations, service providers face the demand for solutions that can keep pace with rapidly shifting requirements.

SD-WAN is a transformative solution that enhances network agility, security and scalability. By leveraging SD-WAN technology, businesses can adapt to changing network conditions with speed, ensuring optimal performance.

Enhanced agility and security: Traditional networking architectures struggle to keep up with the agility and flexibility required by modern digital organisations. Through dynamic routing, secure connectivity and efficient traffic management, SD-WAN ensures that businesses can navigate the complexities of the modern digital landscape with resilience and efficiency.

Centralised management: SD-WAN provides a unified view and management of the entire network, simplifying the configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting processes. This centralised control enhances efficiency and reduces the complexity of managing distributed networks.

Improved performance: SD-WAN enables intelligent routing and effective prioritisation of network traffic, optimising the use of available bandwidth. This results in improved application performance and user experience, especially for critical business applications such as cloud-based services.

An ongoing commitment to innovation

As companies finally come out the other side of unprecedented restrictions, Extreme solutions such as SD-WAN and cloud networking play a pivotal role in post-Covid innovation. With a focus on scalability, flexibility and reliability, these solutions address critical connectivity challenges, ensuring uninterrupted operations and robust security measures as businesses strive to secure their place in the evolving digital landscape.

Contact us to discuss how we can support your organisation here.