The pandemic has added momentum to several aspects of IT, and wireless networking is no exception. For many organizations, the massive expansion of Voice and Video over IP is hastening the move to Wi-Fi 6. (Wi-Fi 6 is the common name for IEEE 802.11ax, the latest wireless networking standard.) Other drivers include the growing Internet of Things, Software as a Service adoptions and the general increase in on-network devices that every industry is experiencing.

If you’re making the leap to Wi-Fi 6, a few key pointers will help you get the results you need.

With many organizations maintaining some or even all of their operations through remote work, users are relying on their devices more than ever.

Access to cloud resources and virtual private network connections are critical to supporting this arrangement, of course, but it’s just as important that workers have devices that function as true business machines. The 10th Gen Intel Core vPro processor series, released earlier this year and available on nearly 200 different devices, gives remote workers the power, security and reliability they would get at the office — and also simplifies management for IT shops. Here are four reasons that business and IT leaders are turning to machines with Intel Core vPro processors.

For years, agility has been a guiding principle for many organizations, but the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated its importance. In the spring, many leaders approached the pandemic as a short-term challenge, one they could overcome with temporary suspensions or ad hoc structures.

Today, leaders are developing solutions that will be sustainable for the next several months, a year or perhaps even longer. This pivot calls for organizations to resume operations, but to do so in a manner that prioritizes public health. Many observers, myself included, believe these shifts will ultimately represent lasting changes to how we work, learn and collaborate.

This past April, the FCC adopted new rules for the 6GHz band (5.925GHz – 7.125GHz), freeing up 1,200MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use. This new amount of spectrum was dubbed Wi-Fi 6E by the Wi-Fi Alliance in January to establish a common industry name to identify devices that will be able to use the 6GHz allocation.

While the Wi-Fi industry has continued to expand and innovate since the inception of 802.11b, this spectrum addition, which more than doubles the amount of previously existing channels, is set to become the biggest innovation driver in wireless today.

It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally a major technological advance comes along at just the right time — for instance, when devices compatible with the IEEE 802.11ax wireless standard (or, Wi-Fi 6, the latest upgrade in wireless networking) come on the market just as a pandemic forces a massive shift to remote operations.

Wi-Fi 6 is more than a slight upgrade. The newest wireless standard offers faster data transfers, higher capacity and greater power efficiency that could extend battery life by 30 to 50 percent. Users will experience better performance on any Wi-Fi 6-enabled device, but optimal performance occurs when connecting over Wi-Fi 6-enabled routers and access points.

Here’s why Wi-Fi 6 is an ideal fit for today’s mobile-first operations — no matter where users are located.

Usually, trouble with wireless devices and networks comes down to the efficiency of radio transmissions, not speed. Fortunately, products that implement Wi-Fi 6, the IEEE’s 802.11ax wireless networking standard, are well positioned to alleviate the performance problems that plague manufacturers. Most of the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 can be explained through three simple abbreviations. At first glance, these may seem like alphabet soup, but the features they represent offer significant improvements to organizations that deploy Wi-Fi 6.