Tech and Trends:- A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network; usually used for connecting computers which spans a wide geographical area, such as between different cities or even countries. They’re often used in corporations or businesses to facilitate the exchange of data between their computers in dispersed offices. Implementing a WAN over a LAN can help your business to facilitate communication between branches and allow employees to work remotely.
We’ve taken a look at some of the main advantages of using a WAN for your business, to show you why we think they may be better suited for you than the LAN alternative. If you are unsure about the difference between LAN and WAN, check this article for further details.
They allow you to extend the reach of your business
As mentioned above, the main advantage of a WAN is that you can connect computers regardless of location. A WAN is a flexible network which is completely scalable and can be adapted to changes in your business requirements. This is especially ideal if your business is planning to open offices in different locations, and you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you’ll all be connected via one system. Although it would be technically possible to build a LAN that allowed communication on this scale, it would present an extremely complex design challenge and would probably be prohibitively expensive.
They can aid the productivity of remote workers
Likewise, you can use a WAN to connect remote workers that aren’t always based in an office which is a huge benefit, too. This means that a company could allow its employees to access its local network from home using their internet connection, also, which is an additional huge advantage. Similarly, employees who are attending meetings outside of the office can connect to the system to share data and access company files.
You can use it to securely link different offices
As long as you take the necessary precautions, your WAN system will be a fantastic way to securely link your different offices; meaning that any files, contact details and company information etc that will be shared via the different offices will be safe and protected from unauthorised access. There are more tips here for keeping your business’s data safe and protected that are worth a read, too.
You can add cost saving applications to your system
WANs are great as they allow you the option of adding further applications onto the network to make your business – and life – easier. There are also applications you can use to make your system cheaper to run too, which is a great additional advantage as some people can be deterred from upgrading to a WAN system due to cost. Things like VoIP are a great example of this; it’s a phone application that allows you to move your phones to the cloud and have a maintenance free, hosted VoIP PBX phone system that can be set up simply, quickly and cheaply.
