Leveraging your investment: 3 BIG ways cloud-managed networks will improve your business [Blog]

Head of Connectivity Mark Hall discusses how to leverage your investment after switching to cloud-managed networks

As we’ve pointed out in previous blogs, network management technology is headed in one clear direction: the cloud. There are several compelling reasons why, and it’s also why our partner Extreme Networks is the fastest-growing vendor in a snowballing market.

But how exactly might a move to cloud-managed networking enhance your business? In this post, we focus on both the day-to-day and long-term impacts of using ExtremeCloud™ IQ, the trailblazing cloud solution created by Extreme Networks and delivered by Daisy Corporate Services.

1. Turn your IT resource into something altogether more powerful…

Complexity is the defining characteristic of most modern networks. The sheer number of connected devices and the sheer volume of data can send the most on-the-ball IT team snow-blind. Diagnosing and solving issues, while keeping your network running at optimal effectiveness can be a round-the-clock challenge. As for turning network data into something usable from a diagnostic or business improvement perspective? That’s another story entirely.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Imagine a scenario where firefighting isn’t your IT team’s primary focus. Once you’ve deployed ExtremeCloud™ IQ, network metadata from your business and thousands of others (securely encrypted throughout) is analysed by powerful artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools that are inherent throughout the product. This enables ExtremeCloud™ IQ to identify anomalies in your network, implement pre-emptive fixes and automate processes – all things that can only be achieved in a cloud environment.

The result? Day-to-day management of your network becomes infinitely easier, freeing up your IT team to add value elsewhere – often, it’s through analysis and digital innovation that improves customer experience, supply chain efficiency or other vital aspects of your activity.

For all this to happen, your network management tool has to offer watertight security and data compliance. ExtremeCloud™ IQ is the industry’s most comprehensively certified cloud network management platform, delivering organisations the highest level of information security and data protection available. You can read more about ExtremeCloud™ IQ’s multiple certifications and compliance here.

2. Harness the power of your data to sharpen your competitive edge

ExtremeCloud™ IQ is the only network management platform to offer unlimited data duration – by which we mean access to all your network data and intelligence from the launch of your first ExtremeCloud™ IQ licence to the present moment.

This allows countless organisations to take business insight to a whole new level. Use cases include:

• Retailers who can analyse seasonal footfall and other store usage metrics to optimise the layout and management of each premises…
• Manufacturers who can transform processes and increase their ability to leverage the Internet of Things…
• Education providers who can revolutionise student welfare through insights into access location and campus use…

Most recently, COVID-19 exposed the need for a solution that allows your IT team to manage your network remotely (and safely) via the cloud. A product like ExtremeCloud™ IQ comes with built-in business continuity benefits, ready for when the next pandemic (or another challenge) strikes.

In short, the potential applications are endless, and you may already have an idea of how unlimited data availability could enhance your organisation’s performance. Our expert consultants can also help you explore others.

3. “The simple maths”

In our experience, most organisations who adopt this technology experienced notable reductions in capex, opex and total cost of ownership, while maximising the efficiency of their IT resource and their business as a whole. Depending on size and scale, the financial impact can help to cover the cost of new IT priorities from SaaS investments to innovation.

The final argument centres around your fitness and flexibility for the future. Cloud-managed networks make your business faster, more responsive and more able to harness business insight. But the flexibility of ExtremeCloud™ IQ itself may be the clincher: licensing is simple, universal and portable, easy to scale up or down as your needs change. As new ExtremeCloud™ IQ features are launched in the coming months and years (trust us, they will…), existing licence holders can take advantage with no extra investment. Meanwhile, the ability to run on any cloud platform only increases your choice should a new public provider join the pack.