Which new Juniper Access Points driven by Mist AI meet your business growth goals?

Every mid-sized business aims to grow, but those ambitious plans could get quickly derailed by limitations in their network. Any expansion brings more customers, employees and devices online, leading to greater data traffic volumes that gradually erode network stability and performance. To preserve the momentum of their growth, businesses need a highly scalable network solution that’s simple to setup, yet robust enough for the needs of today’s digital natives and device-heavy environments. Juniper’s new range of wireless, Wi-Fi 6 capable access points might fit the bill. Linked to Juniper Mist cloud, they form a unified, configurable and automated mesh network that scales with your business. But with names like AP12, AP32, AP33 and AP43, businesses might wonder which model best meets their needs? Let’s explore these options, below.

An access point for every expansion

Businesses facing an ever-expanding inventory of always-on, Internet of Things devices will find great utility in the Juniper AP43. Of particular interest are the built-in sensors that track temperature, pressure and humidity from connected Internet of Things devices, which allows IT teams to quickly spot conditions that could impede parts of the IoT ecosystem. The AP43 also sports IoT-ready ports to simplify the addition of smart devices to today’s fast-evolving offices, retail centres, hospitals and universities.

Besides extending your Wi-Fi network, the AP33 is designed with Virtual Bluetooth Low Energy technology that provides location-based searchability of all connected business assets or personnel within 1 to 3 meters of the device. This will prove especially useful for employees in asset-congested workplaces like retail warehouses or primary schools, where time-consuming ‘needle-in-a-haystack’ searches of critical assets, devices and people are a common frustration.

Those looking for basic network stability and visibility will find satisfaction in the more affordable AP32 model. While lacking the pinpoint accuracy of Virtual Bluetooth LE technology present in its sibling, the AP32 is nevertheless able to give inventory or facility managers broad visibility into all their tagged assets, and trackability to last known location, room or zone. This level of visibility will still prove useful for the planning and allocation of mission-critical assets and resources, which makes the AP32 a cost-effective option for smaller but fast-growing environments like branch offices or clinics.

So what about the AP12 model, the smallest of them all? This wall-mounted model was designed as a cost-efficient way to connect multiple, bandwidth- devices within one concentrated area. In practice, this allows businesses to create pockets of high-performing Wi-Fi connectivity within a larger area – something guests of hospitality businesses or users in dormitories will appreciate. The affordability and small form factor of the AP12 makes it great for businesses wanting to provide connectivity where it’s needed most, which improves quality of service while ensuring growing operations aren’t disrupted.

Here’s a quick snapshot comparison of the 4 models:

Bringing Everything together, on the cloud

Figuring out the right hardware is one thing, procuring enough of them to scale the network is a whole different challenge – particularity when growth is exploding. To streamline and simplify the procurement process, Dicker Data has created a Juniper Mist ConfigurAIDER self-service tool which allows business IT teams to get a quotation for bulk quantities of AP12, AP32 and AP33 Access Points, along with necessary additions like mounting plates and switches that they may need.

This self-service convenience, coupled with AI-driven analytics and automation capabilities, driven by Mist AI, promises to simplify network management and slash mundane network workloads that tend to inflate as the business grows. In practice, this should mean that IT spends less time on manually keeping the network together, and more time on testing new technologies, streamlining networks, and raising the bar on digital services and innovation.

Most enterprise customers will find that they need a mixture of the above access point solutions – and probably more powerful devices as well – to keep their business networks in line with their growth momentum. Coupled with Mist AI, decision-makers will have a complete solution that scales effectively, provides clear visibility into the vital business network, and allows trackability of digital assets – visibility that most businesses lose as they grow outward at a rapid pace.