There are some people who feel that an outdoor network is an extravagance.

It's not.

Even if your workplace isn't a stadium or an outdoor concert hall, there are many reasons why you'd want to extend your indoor wireless network to the great outdoors. One of the biggest reasons is the preponderance of IoT devices. As more and more IoT devices-like video cameras or outdoor lighting or badge readers-are added to the network, they're gobbling up more and more bandwidth. Recent reports show that up to 50% of globally connected devices will be IoT devices, which means your network needs to grow exponentially in order to support this equipment.

While increased support for IoT devices is essential, what's also important is not dropping the Wi-Fi connection when you're running from one building to another. Ever know that you're going to be late for a meeting in person and so you start that call on your phone? Dropping that call or not being able to hear what's being said can be a real pain, so making sure that you have a crisp connection is incredibly important.

Up until now, Cisco has only offered a Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac Wave 2) solution to these issues; but today we're releasing the Cisco Catalyst 9124 Access Point. The new Catalyst 9124 brings the Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard technology outdoors. What exactly does that mean? For starters, the new access points support up to 400 devices per AP and come equipped with up to three radios 2.4GHz and 5GHz (both 4