Anything “cloud” related is hot right now. I suspect that marketing folks at Coca-Cola are brainstorming how to get their products in the cloud. Marshmallow manufacturers have less of a tough road to hoe because their product looks like a cloud anyways, but I digress. Wireless networks are already ethereal enough that making the jump to cloud management is not really a stretch. After all, you can’t see a wireless network; it’s just there, like the cloud. But there can be real benefits to the cloud management of a wireless network in terms of initial activation, costs and troubleshooting.
Still sound a bit improbable? Chances are you actually are already using some form of wireless cloud management in your everyday life. If you utilize Gmail, Dropbox, or iCloud at any point throughout your day, you are utilizing a cloud computing service.
Cloud-based management of a wireless system eliminates the need for expensive on-site controllers. Instead, the configuration of access points is securely stored off-site, and the access points retrieve their data over the Internet. This approach not only reduces upfront costs—since controllers can run into thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars—but also simplifies ongoing management. With traditional controller-based systems, administrators must be disciplined enough to perform regular configuration backups. By contrast, a cloud-based system, often integrated with mobile device management solutions, automatically stores configuration data across multiple off-site servers, ensuring reliability, security, and ease of access without the added burden on IT teams.
Implementing a new warehouse management system company-wide can be costly. Determine your budget and make sure to leave yourself some wiggle room to offer a higher bid if necessary.
The vendor selection process also takes time. Consider this when creating your WMS RFP. Allow yourself extra time for the occasions when vendors provide thought-provoking feedback that causes you to rethink a portion of your warehouse management system solution, such as the integration of RFID technology for improved tracking and efficiency. If you schedule this time into your WMS RFP, vendors will know what to expect and you will show that you know what you are doing. This is crucial for building successful relationships with vendors whom you may want to utilize in the future.
To ease your mind, remember that the data being sent and received through your wireless network is not going through your wide area network connection and through the internet. The access points still communicate through your local area network and hand off the data inside your network just like any network device, such as a switch or router does now. It’s usually just the configuration and management of the network that is based offsite.
Speaking of management, there’s a lot more to managing a wireless network than just bringing it up and letting it fly. It used to be that collecting data like bandwidth usage, application tracking, security attacks and such were expensive and time consuming to come by and, because of that, few people actually did it. Now, instead of investing thousands in hardware and software to monitor the health and usage of the wireless network, many of these tasks can be done via the same cloud-based system that is handling your configurations. You take advantage of superior tools, and costs are shared by hundreds of companies allowing you to have access to them without the high start-up and maintenance costs.
To conclude, cloud-based wireless management, or any cloud-based management for that matter, is not just a marketer’s way of separating you from your company’s money – there are some real benefits in play here.
Now, go have a “cloud” Coke! You earned it!
