HT Roadmap: 4 Steps to Creating a Network of the Future
“We need to be more intelligent about our guest,” says Sam Rucker, CIO at Colonial Williamsburg. “We will be improving the efficiency of our agents and our frontline-facing staff,” with a goal of personalizing each guest’s experience at every touchpoint, from booking through checkout. That’s a tricky proposition in a setting where some guests are seeking an authentic, 18th century experience, while other want a fully 21st century, tech-fueled, digitally enhanced stay.
To find the way forward through this dichotomy, Rucker has three guiding principles: First, look at everything from a guest perspective. Second, ensure decisions are data-driven, such as data on guest behaviors. Third, take an agile approach, working in small phases.
“We'd rather fail fast in small chunks than commit ourselves to large multimillion-dollar initiatives that fail after a long period of time,” Rucker says.
NETWORK MUST-HAVES
4 Key Features for Next-Gen, Cloud-Friendly Networks
- SD-WAN
- Application Assurance
- Security
- Zero Touch Configuration
* Get more details in this exclusive Executive Insight column from Hughes Network Systems.
2. Project current and future needs
Network experts project that growth in demand will be geometric, not linear. In addition to projecting volume increases, operators also need to consider how that new traffic will behave. A guest interacting with a loyalty app, for example, will have a lot of back-and-forth interaction between her smartphone and the cloud database, and that transaction may also involve several other apps to exchange data, such as integrating with a payment app to reorder a favorite dish and kitchen controls to provide order status.
A business that increasingly depends on digital also means the network must always be on and available 24/7, and requires a dual path so there are options in the optimal way to route any given data transaction. In addition, as more mobile, IoT and other devices access the network, security risks multiply. An upgraded network must account for these changes.
Royal Park Hotel (https://www.royalparkhotel.net/) saw a need to considerably increase bandwidth while also paving the way for innovation. The property upgraded its bandwidth to achieve 500 Mbps upload and download speeds, and at the same time replaced 32 Ruckus access points with 160 new APs, including one per guestroom with built-in IoT capability. This has provided the property with the capacity to roll out myriad innovations including:
- Assa Abloy keyless locks, to be tied into a new hotel app
- TracknProtect asset and staff app
- Alice hotel operations platform and
- New smart TVs, planned for next year
- Upgrade to Opera Cloud version 9, which also impacts network capacity and performance requirements.
Royal Park’s IT provider physically checks the network weekly and a network management company handles daily tasks. “We are able to accommodate anything that comes our way at this point” with plenty of capacity, says Scott Rhodes, director of engineering. Currently four door locks can run off of one AP, for example, leaving the others wide open. “You hear nothing from guests as far as complaints. That's how I judge satisfaction.”
6 Things SD-WANs Can Do
- Intelligently prioritize traffic, such as recognizing mobile and POS payments as critical to prevent delays
- Provide a secure, direct, always-on path to the Internet and cloud
- Offer dual circuits
- Automatically sense and adapt to app changes on the fly
- Enable apps to be added and dropped without a network engineer
- Accommodate the online connections required for EMV
3. Consider options to address gaps
Creating the network of the future requires considering not just additional capacity, but ensuring the network is flexible, intelligent, actively managed and secure.
For example, quick service restaurant Jack in the Box (jackinthebox.com) and its Qdoba Mexican Grill (qdoba.com) subsidiary, which it sold in December 2017, chose the cloud-friendly HughesON Next-Generation Network, including fully managed, high-speed primary and backup networks securely connecting approximately 3,000 restaurants across North America. Hughes is also providing managed network support for guest and employee enterprise WiFi. A HR4700 Branch Gateway at each restaurant ensures robust security, routing and WAN optimization in a single device.
“The Hughes solution gives us the throughput and security we need to support our customers’ growing digital demands,” says Drew Martin, CIO at Jack in the Box. “It also makes us better prepared for the future as we expand our applications to support our guests.”
A growing number of operators are turning to software-defined networks (SD-WAN), actively addressed by managed network service providers, to handle increasingly complex network demands. SD-WANs are application-aware, with built-in intelligence on how applications perform.
4. Ensure robust security and redundancy
Hospitality networks process payment data, and as a result, must be compliant with PCI. A good network provider adopts PCI guidelines as they are released and helps operators with annual assessment tasks such as FAQs, security posture verification, testing and log archive/review.
Most security experts, however, consider PCI the bare minimum. All those new devices accessing the network – staff-facing as well as guest devices -- mean advanced multi-layer security is essential to ensure corporate and guest data is fully protected. Must-have features include unified threat management, next-gen firewalls, antivirus and malware, and services such as AI-based review of security lots and incident response/remediation. Many operators are choosing vendor partners with actively managed security operations centers (SOC) to ensure top level expertise is always monitoring and protecting network activity.
- Conclusion: Battle of the Network Stars
Hospitality networks have long existed in the background, quietly connecting the enterprise and remaining largely invisible to the guest – and even to staff. But the network of the future is one whose performance is highly visible, and mission critical to the ability for the operator to deliver a great guest experience. Operators that take the time to plan and implement a solid, agile network set themselves up for a digitally fueled, guest-centric future.