3 Key Considerations To Upgrade Your Business to 5G

While much of the talk and hype around 5G is focused on what it means for consumers, it’s actually businesses that have the most to gain from the era of 5G connectivity, explains Todd Krautkremer, CMO, Cradlepoint.

The time to act is now. With the pandemic placing increased value on network speed and agility, as well as heightened security, 5G and wireless wide area networks (Wireless WAN) based on cellular connectivity can help organizations meet these growing demands not just now, but also in a post-pandemic future.  

With 5G deployments becoming more widespread, business-oriented data plans are available, and 5G-enabled business routers and adapters on the market, IT decision-makers across the globe can take advantage of this powerful, flexible, and reliable form of wireless connectivity today. Yet some businesses need guidance on how to make the right 5G investments whether it’s for IoT, retail, manufacturing, or auto applications in order to identify the best path forward.  

Embracing Wireless WAN  

Historically, a wired WAN connects various distributed local area networks, devices, data and applications to each other. When it comes to cloud applications, the WAN is the new LAN (local-area network), requiring the level of non-stop connectivity that only cellular provides. A Wireless WAN deploys cellular broadband including 4G LTE and 5G technology as an essential infrastructure by providing primary or failover cellular connectivity to stores, offices, vehicles, and/or IoT devices at the network’s edge. 

Wireless WANs are becoming an essential part of an organization’s transformation journey. They expand the reach of the enterprise to the people, places, and things anywhere where work or customer interactions are happening. As such, it’s important for businesses to understand and embrace Wireless WAN as an integral part of a 5G investment and rollout.   

By adopting Wireless WAN, businesses can unlock 5G’s true potential for fiber-fast and cellular-simple connectivity anywhere you need it. Wireless WAN allows enterprises to achieve the freedom of greater business agility and reach without worrying about manageability.  

See More: The Breadth of Flexibility Required in New 5G Charging Systems

5G Confidence Is Key 

Overall, 5G mobile connections are on a steady year-to-year growth, with the total number of connections predicted to reach 3 billion by 2025Opens a new window . As with the consumer space, 5G is on its way to becoming the new normal and it is critical for businesses to become familiar with 5G technology and the advantages it offers.  

Often having hundreds or even tens of thousands of locations, vehicles, remote workers, and IoT devices, enterprises need the ability to connect, secure and manage a diversity of endpoints with one platform and without complexity. Given the unique requirements of Wireless WANs, before investing in 5G, businesses must carefully evaluate the business-readiness and capabilities of 5G-capable routers and adapters (a remotable modem and antenna system). As with any RF wireless networking system, your mileage will vary considerably.  

See More: A Safety Net for 5G and Edge: How OOB Network Management Helps Create More Resilient Networks

Committing to Lifecycle Management  

While the wireless operator rollout of 5G is well underway, we are still at the dawn of 5G’s full potential. It will deliver or enable everything from ultra-low latency and multi-gigabit connections to massive IoT with extended battery life, and edge computing.  

As enticing as the value proposition is with 5G, it will never get adopted if the 5G routers and adapters that connect to it cannot meet or exceed critical business requirements for security, performance, and management. As such, businesses need to ensure that the 4G LTE and 5G Wireless WAN solutions they are considering have security baked in, deliver the expected performance, and provide complete lifecycle management aligned with the size of deployment. From zero-touch deployments to group configuration, assessing uptime and performance, real-time monitoring of security posture, application quality of experience, and cellular data plan consumption to remote troubleshooting. These lifecycle management capabilities are critical to managing a modern WAN.  

The future is 5G and it’s here. Yet making adopting 5G as an essential part of your WAN infrastructure is a big decision. Embracing its unique fiber-fast and cellular-simple capabilities of 5G, along with the agility and reach that only cellular can provide, should not require trading off security, uptime, or manageability.  

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