Affinity Blue is the best enterprise WiFi solutions provider in Australia. We know it, our customers know it, and our competitors know it. Our services include:
– Auditing, investigating and designing the best network solutions to suit your business.
– Delivering simple solutions that solve complex IT infrastructure problems.
– Facilitating expansions for organisations in the Australasian Region.
Our Head Office is in Melbourne, but through an extensive, trusted partner network, we have hands-on experience and are capable of servicing and delivering projects throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Yes. We provide turnkey solutions to our customers. This includes the survey and design work, the procurement of equipment, configuration services, onsite installation, commissioning and post-sales support. We are an enterprise provider and are accustomed to excelling on challenging projects.
We have a great deal of experience working with IT Solution Providers. Our skilled, experienced and qualified engineers can design and deploy wireless solutions to suit your needs.
Good WiFi engineers are expensive and impossible to find. That’s why IT Solution Providers trust us to outsource their customers’ WiFi needs to Affinity Blue. We have a partner program to provide services to your customers on your behalf under your banner. We can do as little or as much as you need us to.
A wireless survey is the first step when deploying a wireless network. These surveys are conducted to understand the behaviour of RF signals in your building or structure, what it is made with, the layout of fixtures and fittings, and possible sources of interference. With this information, we can complete an analysis to determine the ideal placement of wireless access points and antennas.
We can complete an offplan (simulated) wireless survey or an onsite survey. Offplan surveys are typically used when designing a new wireless network from the ground up, either for an existing building or a building that has yet to commence construction. An onsite survey considers existing equipment and site influences such as interference and is commonly used when analysing an existing network for troubleshooting purposes or reviewing expansions and upgrades.
WiFi is becoming the primary connection for businesses, and you need to ensure it is optimised and running at peak efficiency to avoid performance issues. If your network is congested, it is performing beyond its intended design. Latency will likely be an issue that results in pack loss & delays, a significant drop in throughput, session loss and jitter, impacting voice and video operations. It may not be the whole network causing an issue, and it could be limited to certain areas. The root cause could be a faulty access point, incorrect configuration, density issue, incorrect power settings resulting in ‘sticky clients’, channel interference or even noise interference of external factors. All of these can negatively impact your WiFi, resulting in unacceptable performance.
A wireless survey of your facility can spotlight any areas of concern. A detailed report will highlight areas needing improvement and the associated recommendations and optimisation techniques.
A wireless survey is akin to a house plan before you start building. Without careful planning and identification of potential issues specific to your facility, there is no way of knowing how many access points you need, where they need to be and what configuration needs to be in place in order to meet your business needs.
A wireless survey considers the building layout, environment, attenuation loss and access point performance.
Different access points perform differently. Antenna patterns vary. Some building materials absorb more signals than others. You may have a source of local interference and need particular channels excluded. You may have a harsh environment and need coverage in areas not within spec of access points.
A wireless survey factually considers all these items and allows us to produce a network design that will meet your business requirements.
The offplan survey process is quite simple. Firstly, we need you to provide us with accurate floor plans that are scaled and include accurate measurements. From there, we upload the maps into our survey tool, Ekahau, and ‘draw’ on attenuation loss rates for walls, fixtures, fittings, ceiling heights and so forth.
Next, our certified wireless engineers begin placing access points on the maps, and from the attenuation metrics, we can see the coverage, signal strength, SNR and date rates. We repeat the process until the facility is covered in suitable WiFi coverage.
An onsite survey follows a similar approach, but the attenuation losses are based on actuals, not estimates, determined by completing a spectrum analysis. Additionally, site noise (interference) is analysed and factored into the design.
The results of a wireless survey are presented in a detailed report that makes extensive use of visual representations of wireless performance throughout. Technical information is included about current wireless performance, coverage and SNR. A list of recommendations regarding repositioning access points, remove/addition of access points and changes to the configuration is included. A series of simulated visual representations are also included to demonstrate how the network would perform if our recommendations we implemented. The report concludes with a Bill of Materials for any proposed equipment changes and a conclusion of the analysis.
A survey is paid engagement where we analyse your current network and put forward a detailed review and list of recommendations to enhance it. A wireless survey is a significant undertaking and depending on how large or complex your site is, it can take several days to conduct.
You are provided with a detailed report of findings that you can use for a tendering process or to satisfy any governance or document requirements you may have.
Yes. Before completing any wireless design, we need to know your business use case and requirements. Video and voice applications require a low latency wireless network to avoid the jitters. If you also need location services, we need to factor in triangulation, or If you need public wifi, we need to factor in density. There are many possible use cases to consider when designing a wireless network with video and voice applications in mind.
The consideration here is the type of access point we are allowed to use. If you had areas requiring intrinsically safe equipment, we would need to use a specific type of access point which holds all the relevant certifications. We need to know all pertinent information to ensure that the equipment we propose is suitable for hazardous areas.
From a high level, 802.1x (or Network Access Control) is the process of introducing an additional level of authentication for network devices known as AAA authentication. Network devices need to have a valid certificate installed before being granted any access to the network. Additionally, based on that device, a role will be assigned to it, limiting access accordingly.
802.1x ensures the device is authorised, only has access to specific resources, and that the user is authenticated.
802.1x is the golden standard of network authentication security, and organisations with the highest security requirements use it for their wired and wireless networks.
A key to deploying 802.1x in your organisation is ensuring it is done correctly by an experienced, qualified solutions provider. If 802.1x is not deployed correctly, you can be left vulnerable or in a worse position than before having it.
Virtually, they are the same. You don’t need to have it on both networks if you don’t want to. Most companies tend to start their 802.1x implementation on one network then expand into other networks later.
Most 802.1x solutions have some degree of integration with other security solutions. Clearpass, for example, integrates with dozens of non-Aruba products and solutions, including but not limited to Cisco, Palo Alto, Juniper, AirWatch, SOTI, Fortinet, IBM, Aplunk, McAfee, ArcSight, F5, MaaS360, SAP and MobileIron.
Integrating Clearpass with other vendors in your network allows you to use this amazing product to its fullest potential.
Most customers are shocked when we install 802.1x solutions like Clearpass and see what devices are actually on their network. Leading 802.1x solutions dynamically profile devices and assign predefined access policies to those devices.
Once a device is profiled, that device would be appropriately segmented. The switch port it is connected to would automatically have a VLAN or ACL applied to it to restrict access to what is required. It won’t have the same access as a phone or notebook.
Leading 802.1x solutions, such as Clearpass, have this covered. Clearpass comes with Guest and BYOD capabilities.
For guest access, a captive portal is used. Guests can connect to the network via wired or wireless and be directed to a portal to register for guest access. Options are numerous, but most commonly, the guest user needs to nominate a ‘sponsor’ who can authorise temporary guest access for the short term.
BYOD functionality comes with Clearpass, allowing self-service onboarding of devices via unique certificates. This allows prompt revoking of access to any devices as required.
In short, guest and BYOD access will continue to operate as expected and be enhanced with a system like Clearpass.
Device Insight provides you with the visibility of all devices on the network. From there, you can efficiently run a visual check to ensure no devices have been compromised and only authorised devices have access.
Addition functionality exists where, prior to being granted corporate access, a series of checks can be completed against the device. Hotfixes and antivirus definitions, for example, can be checked before access is granted.
Through these key functionality items, you can ensure your network and its devices (Windows, Mac, Linux and IoT) are secure, and access is authorised.
SD-WAN is a way of delivering secure connectivity to remote/branch offices using a combination of hardware, software and cloud‐based services compared to the traditional MPLS based network.
MPLS is a connection type based on a centralised model. All your remote and branch offices come back to a central point (typically HQ). Before cloud services became mainstream, this was a perfect fit. It provided fast connections across the enterprise and multiple branches. MPLS does, however, have limitations in today’s environment. With more and more remote workers, mobile devices and cloud-based applications, MPLS networks can struggle to suit modern-day requirements and network topology.
With cloud service becoming mainstream, not all data from your remote offices need to come back to HQ, and some can be directed straight to the internet directly from that branch office.
SD-WAN as a concept identifies which traffic needs to go to HQ and which traffic can go straight to the internet. Through multiple consumer-grade links, costs can be reduced, bandwidth requirements are lowered, and businesses can enjoy zero-touch provisioning to bring them up and running in hours, not months.
Not necessarily. It comes down to your unique business requirements. If your company no longer needs low latency direct links between HQ and branch offices, then yes, it is highly probable we can remove your MPLS link and replace it with an SD-WAN solution. Utilising multiple consumer-grade links can provide far higher bandwidth, more download quotes, and redundancy.
If you need a direct low latency connection, SD-WAN can work with your MPLS network. It is highly probable via its intelligent routing that your MPLS link speeds can be reduced and a second connection (such as consumer-grade ADSL/NDN/4G/5G/etc) be introduced. Only data destined for HQ can travel over the MPLS network, and everything else can go direct to the internet.
No. SD-WAN can make use of your existing carrier. SD-WAN brings options to your business with the ability to have a mix of carriers and technologies all seamlessly working together. SD-WAN is built for modern, fast-moving and dynamic networks.
Absolutely! SD-WAN gives you more control and visibility of your business network. It allows you to accurately determine what infrastructure is needed, where it is required and provides you with the ability to deliver it rapidly.
SD-WAN allows you to combine multiple consumer-grade services to provide higher speeds, stronger performance and a modernised network topology your business can benefit from. All for a far lower cost than traditional MPLS.
Yes. SD-WAN providers use high-level encryption to secure all network traffic. Each provider does it a little differently, but all enterprise SD-WAN providers have a secure and mature solution.
Your security will not be compromised by using an SD-WAN solution.
Yes, SD-WAN can be self-managed without needing to go through your carrier or provider. One of SD-WAN’s best features is the management portals. Each vendor has a different portal, but all the leading providers have easy to use platforms that can be integrated with your existing WAN solutions.
Some vendors couple their management platforms with their wireless and switching platforms to have a single cloud-based platform for their entire network infrastructure.
SD-WAN uses multiple connectivity options from multiple providers to deliver a resilient and redundant network. You can have a combination of all the connection types from multiple providers.
If one provider was to have an issue, your SD-WAN will automatically failover to another connection to provide you with uninterrupted service. LTE connections provide great redundancy for physical cabling issues, and SD-WAN can use such connections in tandem with the traditional services delivered over cable.
So through multiple connections from multiple providers, SD-WAN as a solution provides high‐performance connectivity to your corporate network and cloud services.
