Finding the best enterprise router requires taking a deeper look at the features that matter most, from reliable connectivity to security
Imagine you’re shopping for a new car. Like any investment, you wouldn’t just grab the first one you see — you’d likely have a checklist of non-negotiable features, from fuel efficiency to safety ratings and other tech integrations. The same meticulous approach applies when selecting the best business router. Just as the right car keeps you cruising smoothly on the highway, the right router ensures your business stays connected and on the road to success.
However, finding the best business router requires a clear understanding of which features are essential. This ensures you get a router that can handle your business’ needs, from supporting multiple devices, applications, and high-speed internet to providing robust security and simplified management. Staying informed about these critical features helps you make a smart investment to keep your business running smoothly.
Why is having a reliable, high-performance enterprise business router necessary?
A reliable, high-performance business router is crucial for maintaining seamless operations in today’s fast-paced, digitally driven world. A top-tier router can handle high traffic volumes, provide multiple types of security to protect sensitive data, and offer the scalability needed to grow. Without a dependable router, organizations risk downtime, security breaches, and a sluggish network that can hamper productivity and customer satisfaction.
What key features make a router suitable for businesses?
When selecting the best business router, understanding the key factors to look for is like knowing the crucial specs for your dream car — both ensure you stay in the fast lane and avoid any unexpected roadblocks. Let’s cruise through some key features that make a router suitable for business for a seamless networking experience.
5G cellular connectivity
Leveraging cellular technology transforms business operations, enabling enterprises to boost efficiency, cut costs, gain a competitive advantage, and meet the growing demands of customers. The ultra-low latency and high bandwidth of 5G allows organizations to transmit and process large amounts of data faster than ever. This is especially important as applications become more advanced and more data is stored in the cloud. But enabling this sort of connectivity requires the best 5G router for Wireless WAN (WWAN) — one that supports all 5G spectrum layers and provides secure, customizable, and easy-to-manage connectivity.
With 5G enterprise routers, organizations have the flexibility to evolve and expand to fixed and temporary locations, vehicles, IoT, and more, enabling new applications and use cases.
Cellular Intelligence
Having an enterprise router with built-in Cellular Intelligence is key to achieving optimal quality of experience (QoE). This brings troubleshooting, data usage insights, and vital networking information together in a single management tool, providing greater automation, flexibility, and scalability. But how, exactly, does it work?
Cellular Intelligence is a collection of software features built into Cradlepoint’s wireless edge routers and adapters. These features enable IT teams to visualize and optimize cellular connections, data plans, and traffic flow, providing greater simplicity for 5G WWAN deployments.
Enterprise-class routing
The best enterprise business router should support all the commonly used routing protocols for several reasons. First, it ensures seamless communication and compatibility across the network infrastructure. It also provides flexibility, allowing the router to adapt to varying network requirements. Finally, as businesses grow and networks become more complex, they can scale efficiently without significant infrastructure changes. Standard enterprise-class protocols include:
- Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
- Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
- Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC)
- Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)
- Next Hop Routing Protocol (NHRP)
- Virtual Redundancy Routing Protocol (VRRP)
Purpose-built hardware
A purpose-built 5G enterprise router is explicitly designed to meet the needs of unique enterprise environments. Unlike standard consumer routers, these devices are engineered with durable hardware and advanced features that ensure high performance, reliability, and security.
For example, if a router needs Bluetooth or to be ruggedized to a certain IP rating, it will be built specifically for that scenario — whether it’s being used in IoT, vehicles, or fixed sites. Here, it’s also important that whoever builds the hardware considers radio frequency interference (RFI), ensuring all components that go into customizing a router don’t compete with the RF signal.
Custom modem drivers
A custom modem driver, like the ones found in Cradlepoint wireless edge solutions, improves connection resilience, which, in turn, allows for a more stable connection and better monitoring of cellular metrics.
Cloud management with zero touch deployment
A 5G router that can be easily managed through a cloud-based platform gives lean IT teams the flexibility to control and manage the network from anywhere. This means they can simultaneously deploy, configure, and push out group router or modem firmware updates without ever stepping foot on individual sites.
Cloud-based management tools such as Cradlepoint NetCloud Manager make this possible by providing real-time visibility into and control of the network from a single, unified platform.
Native zero trust security
Many businesses are taking advantage of 5G’s agility by using cellular-enabled routers to deploy and connect more devices in stores, offices, vehicles, and IoT situations. However, the attack surface grows when more devices are added to a WAN.
With an increase in cybersecurity threats and the ongoing edge expansion, having a router with built-in zero trust security is important. Zero trust takes a limited-access approach to network security by assuming anyone attempting to access the network is a bad actor. This eliminates default access, reduces lateral movement, and connects users to specific resources instead of broad network segments.
5G-optimized SD-WAN
Selecting a cellular router with SD-WAN capabilities significantly improves performance and saves money by optimizing network traffic. It does so by considering cellular-centric attributes, such as available bandwidth and data usage, leveraging in-line traffic to measure WAN performance, and being network slicing ready for when 5G networks evolve to standalone.
Deep extensibility
Deep extensibility on the router provides an even more customized solution for businesses, extending the router beyond its standard functionalities through various means such as software or Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This allows enterprises to tailor their router capabilities to meet specific needs while integrating with other systems or applications.
Customized programming on the router using a software developer kit (SDK), such as NetCloud SDK, allows an organization to write apps and create custom uses to support their networking needs, thus reducing expenses and improving the bottom line. Once these apps are written, they can be easily deployed using a cloud-based management tool.
