There are more than 400 million smart homes globally. In South Africa, it’s expected to reach 20.6% of the market by 2028 with multiple well-known brands selling smart devices designed to optimise lighting, power and water usage, and home security.  

With the increase of (IOT) Internet of Things Wi-Fi devices, attackers are now targeting smart home appliances, wearables and security systems.

As South Africans become increasingly reliant on smart door locks, smart security cameras, smart smoke detectors, fire alarms and home security systems, it’s equally important that they ensure these smart solutions are secure themselves.

The risk to health and property if a device is left open to hackers is untenable, and yet many homeowners don’t realise how important it is to change the password on their router.

The latter’s password is usually set to default when it’s purchased or installed, and this makes it an easy gateway into any home network.

Then there’s the risk that comes with not using a strong password. According to the World Economic Forum, the world’s most popular passwords are still terrible – 123456 is the world’s most common. It is also the worst.

More than 4.5 million people have used it and it takes a hacker under a second to crack. In fact, if a person’s password appears on any of the top password lists, it’s not going to keep their home safe.

Now, imagine if that password was used to gain access to your home security system. A digitally savvy criminal can remotely open the gate, turn off the beams, unlock the front door, turn off the cameras and the alarms, and walk into your home without anyone noticing.

This becomes even more bone-chilling if you realise that this could all happen while you were at home.

It is not a sign to stop using these devices. The value they add to quality of life is significant. The ability to schedule temperatures, lighting, switches, speakers and appliances is incredibly convenient, and saves both time and money.

It’s more of a call to network action. Yes, you can use your IoT Wi-Fi devices to monitor your solar and improve your standard of living, but do so with a network that’s been optimised to handle the load and the risk.

The network is not only a point of vulnerability, it’s also the key to ensuring it can handle the demands of a comprehensively smart home.

Older routers can handle up to 32 devices at the same time before losing coherence, so the first, most important step, is to prioritise investing into the latest technology.

A modern router with an incredibly strong password will immediately make your network more secure and will make it easier for you to connect multiple devices and gain all the benefits of a smart home and smart technology.

When you optimise your network settings for your IoT Wi-Fi devices, your devices will function better and you will gain better control over performance and network capacity. It sounds complex, but it boils down to using the best possible technology to handle the role.

And this is not just the router. You want reliable equipment and a connectivity provider who can ensure your devices remain secure and functioning optimally.

When you combine the connectivity with the security and the technology, then you have the perfect trifecta of smart home functionality that will deliver the right performance at a consistency it demands.

It also means that as a South African, you get that smart doorbell, intelligent power management and all the other digital bells and whistles within a tight ecosystem that’s geared to protect your home without compromise.

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Connectivity is fundamental to a thriving enterprise. Cloud sprawl, security, scale, inflexibility, compatibility, integration – these are pervasive challenges for organisations wanting connectivity that’s capable of managing user demands and their infrastructure.

Yet, as a recent Forrester survey found, 40% of organisations feel that they are losing control over their technology estates thanks to a lack of cloud connectivity – they want more connectivity options and better control over their estate so they can modernise at speed.

The problem is … the problem of connectivity.

For most companies, Wi-Fi is an internally managed resource which can inhibit its ability to flex on demand and provide agile support in the event of a failure or downtime.

Internal teams only have so many resources at their disposal, and these resources are stretched across users, security and systems.

Ideally, the enterprise needs a connectivity platform that can change shape on demand without putting undue pressure on internal resources, and without running the risk of downtime.

These are just some of the reasons why companies are turning to managed Wi-Fi solutions to take the burden off the business’s shoulders.

The market is projected to reach $90 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 14.42% over the next seven years. It aligns with research released by Forrester in mid-2023 that highlighted the rise of the business-optimised network (BON) – a network designed for the business. It’s not as obvious as it sounds.

The network has always been designed for the business but it also hasn’t. Networks were, as Forrester points out, simply there to connect devices and repositories.

Now they are the critical backbone of the enterprise’s architecture, connecting ports, storage, people, technologies, geographies and ecosystems.

In short, they’re not really being correctly designed for the business because they aren’t taking every component and use case into consideration.

Managed Wi-Fi allows for the business to step-shift away from convoluted complexity and an over-reliance on a Wi-Fi architecture that isn’t ideally suited to its needs and instead benefit from hands-on convenience and support within a reliable and performance-optimised ecosystem.

ISP-managed Wi-Fi solutions provide companies with all-in-one packages that include both the internet service and the Wi-Fi technology so companies don’t need to think about setting things up, troubleshooting the system or ensuring every touchpoint is operating optimally. It becomes someone else’s problem.

Which is nice, because solving that problem via a managed service provider also brings reliability, performance and security.

Quality equipment, optimal network performance, optimised settings, regular maintenance, firmware updates, and robust security features are included in a managed Wi-Fi service.

These are time-consuming essentials that have traditionally slowed IT teams down or affected overall network performance.

Managed means value-added in that controls and capabilities are dealt with by the service provider and any potential vulnerabilities are rapidly resolved with regular security updates.

The other benefit that comes with shifting responsibility across to a managed service provider is a significant reduction in downtime.

Security patches, errors, vulnerability management and network inefficiencies are dealt with rapidly and often without the need to reboot the entire system and leave the office without critical connectivity.

It’s an immediate return on investment thanks to reduced downtime and inefficiencies, particularly for companies dealing with remote workers and a global client base.

An accredited Wi-Fi specialist team is essentially a certified support system that delivers connected peace of mind. It’s that simple.

While the as-a-Service model is hardly new, shifting Wi-Fi into this realm can help organisations better optimise their services and the design of their networks, effectively overcoming the challenge Forrester raised earlier.

A managed Wi-Fi provider assesses the needs of the business and designs a network that meets those needs across key factors such as coverage, capacity and interference.

They also manage deployment, configuration and monitoring while allowing for the business to scale on demand.

Taking Wi-Fi into a managed space can help organisations refine their connectivity and costs at a time when both are essential to growth and resilience.

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