By Abe Haller
For our latest installment of ngena Network Chats, I sat down with ngena CPO, Dietmar Geiler, and SVP of ngena labs, Bojan Likar to discuss how Wi-Fi can be an integral part of an enterprise’s digital transformation. In an increasingly volatile economy, enterprises are tightening their pockets – looking to increase effective spending while decreasing overhead costs. Closing offices, layoffs, and reducing IT teams to reduce costs could negatively impact the overall customer experience and managing operations is more difficult.
ngena’s Wi-Fi as a Service (aaS) is a new offering from our team that provides several benefits you won’t receive from traditional internet offerings. Efficiency is key in a fast-paced business environment, especially when undergoing digital transformation. CPO of ngena, Dietmar Geiler, explained more about how ngena’s Wi-Fi aaS offering is helping enterprises become more efficient. He emphasized that while the speed, stability, and bandwidth of Wi-Fi is still of utmost importance, enterprises are looking to expand the performance capabilities of this utility.
ngena’s Wi-Fi aaS enhances digital transformation by combining connectivity and specialized AI-driven capabilities into a single service offering. It’s so much more than just fast and reliable Wi-Fi – it includes data analytics capabilities that detect and monitor the behaviour of customers. ngena Wi-Fi as a service includes access to instant deep data analytics as a premium value-added service that empowers opportunities for better customer engagement through useful insights at the hands of the customer.
Insights and analytics are important, however, ease of access to ngena’s Wi-Fi as a service is also a key benefit explains Bojan Likar. ngena WaaS is integrated into the company’s intuitive ‘.connect platform’ which WaaS easy to access, but also simplifies operations to make it easier to troubleshoot network issues and the health of your networks through automated monitoring and alerts that improve user engagement. These automated capabilities can take the burden off network operations teams by easily monitoring, correcting, and creating reports through the automation available with our Wi-Fi solution.
Some enterprises may also benefit from the ability to reduce employment costs by decreasing the size of their network operations – a massive cost savings enabled by our Wi-Fi as a Service solution. Bojan also expanded on blazeAI™, a revolutionary way to deliver state-of-the-art wireless connectivity and performance. blazeAI™ is the network orchestration and data analytics section of our Wi-Fi aaS solution.
Advanced machine learning utilizes business intelligence to transform costly connectivity expenses into a business asset. Bojan’s team aims to deliver seamless, secure, reliable enterprise connectivity and specialized over-the-top services and regardless of the industry – Retail, Healthcare, Education, Hospitality, Government, Telecom Operators – this is the perfect Wi-Fi solution.
When asked to expand on the benefits enterprises may experience with Wi-Fi aaS from ngena, Dietmar emphasized both operational and strategic points. He explained that ngena Wi-Fi as a Service is an end-to-end solution delivered in a subscription-based “as a Service” model through a customizable, comprehensive package. By offering this model, ngena can empower its customers with the simplicity and peace of mind they need to securely transform or expand their enterprise Wi-Fi with agile effectiveness.
Using ngena Wi-Fi as a Service has shown to transform the cost of connectivity into an operational asset that is simple to connect and allows for savings on operational management costs at the same time. In addition, with capabilities like AI-generated visual maps of traffic patterns and automated network health checks, we have created a Wi-Fi solution that takes secure connectivity beyond just an expected cost or utility that consumers expect. The acquisition of neutrino8 in 2022 bolstered ngena to offer a powerful Wi-Fi as a Service solution that has been integrated into our secure connectivity portfolio of solutions and is easily operated by .connect™ for a fully digitized user experience that is easier to manage and requires little training or specialized skill to start using the operational management aspects of our Wi Fi offering.
Dietmar then offered an example of our Wi-Fi as a Service solution in action: Wi-Fi-as a service integrates well with local and federal government agencies looking to enhance how they interact with residents, visitors, and tourists. Our Wi-Fi solution provides highly affordable — even potentially free — Wi-Fi to end customers. Along with enhancing connectivity, officials can also use the data analytics capabilities of blazeAI functionality to monitor traffic flows and receive automated location-based assessments. This can help improve zoning and urban development opportunities for local governments.
Bojan followed with a more in-depth explanation of the AI capabilities. “With blazeAI™, you receive real-time visibility of multi-tenant, multi-site, and multiple sub-location networks. Enterprises gain business insights from rich analytics and AI-driven notifications to optimize the quality of the user experience. ngena’s blazeAI™ technology delivers continuous monitoring, analytics, control, and always up to date software and security updates.”
The technology allows data insights to become business intelligence that transforms connectivity costs into a business asset for any enterprise regardless of industry, and it is the perfect, cost-effective, Wi-Fi solution. Powered by machine learning backed AI technology, and dynamically scalable cloud-based micro-services, blazeAI orchestrates seamless, secure, reliable enterprise connectivity and specialized over-the-top services including such analytics as the behavior of in store customers, device, and health tracking in healthcare, or secure & reliable and smart web access for schools and educational institutions.
ngena’s Wi-Fi solution can transform your wireless network into a digital platform with direct business value at an affordable cost. Its core capabilities are fueled by innovative machine learning and data analytics, empowering reactive, proactive, and predictive problem-solving ways to assist network operations teams. Now, you can turn business intelligence into usable insights that simplify Wi-Fi network operations management tasks through automation.
Dietmar then offered to touch on some of the other capabilities of ngena’s Wi-Fi solution that make it a return on investment. He stated that there is no question that Wi-Fi data analytics can help uncover insights that help detect issues faster to better manage the health and security of networks.
Built with security in mind, ngena’s virtual wireless access network is fortified with required authentication from every device to decrease the chances of cyber-attacks, breaches, or unauthorized access; this is an important security feature as 67% of businesses organizations have seen their external attack surface expand over the past two years alone, due to the rising use of cloud, third-party services, loT, and cyber-physical systems.
From an operational perspective, with ngena Wi-Fi, a user’s entire network access can be securely provisioned from the cloud in minutes using the intuitive web-based dashboard or mobile app. The Wi-Fi Access Points can be shipped directly to any remote site. Installation is quick, even without technical knowledge, and the Wi-Fi service can be powered up and connected in less than 90 seconds per Wi-Fi Access Point.
The cloud-delivered capabilities of ngena’s Wi-Fi solution make it easy for internal marketing teams and leaders to configure and view templates and reports with customizable data insights and traffic flows in real-time from anywhere — a critical component as more people work remotely or within a hybrid work model so our Wi-Fi can ensure efficiency and productivity with easy shared access and remote capabilities. If there is a hub and remote networks piggy- backing off enterprise headquarters, we can add access points anywhere, providing connectivity on a global scale within minutes.
Operational and cost savings associated with Wi-Fi as a Service are imperative for today’s enterprises. Bojan expounded on how this is accomplished with our Wi-Fi as a Service solution. He explained that ngena’s Wi-Fi-as-a-service is unique is because it’s not proprietary. We have a multi-hardware compatible approach to our solution. Users don’t have to be locked in with any one vendor for access points to be connected as our Wi-Fi comes as part with pre-enabled compatibility of existing access points from several vendors and we continue to expand this availability. This adds a layer of flexibility and agility into the hands of the customer.
ngena blazeAI™ dramatically reduces capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OPEX) along with state-of-the-art wireless connectivity and performance. With ngena Wi-Fi, user’s entire network access can be securely provisioned from the cloud in minutes, by using the intuitive, web based .connect™ dashboard or mobile app. Once ordered, your Wi-Fi access points can be shipped directly to any remote site. Installation is quick, even without prior technical knowledge, and the Wi-Fi service can be powered up and connected in less than 90 seconds per Wi-Fi Access Point. Wi-Fi that is fast, and affordable! And has the automation power to help manage network operations and security at the same time.
If you’d like to learn more about ngena or our Wi-Fi as a Service solution, please take a moment to visit www.ngena.net.
