The growth of remote access was once facilitated by legacy equipment such as leased lines and private wires. Previously unreachable sites suddenly became accessible. Due to the shift to IP and cloud-based networking, these systems are becoming increasingly obsolete. The legacy system providers will not be installing new sites and will cease support by the end of the decade.

Cloud-based networking allows infrastructure to exist virtually. This enables remote locations, such as pumping stations and energy meters, to report to a central cloud server. System administrators and engineers can access the system from the comfort of their homes to manage, monitor and support remote sites.

Site rollout is one of the advantages of cloud networking. Utility companies have thousands of remote locations, each requiring specific settings. To do this one by one would be very expensive both in terms of time and money. A service such as Activator can be set up in the cloud for mass deployment, allowing each site to have its own configuration file ready for deployment. When the engineer installs and powers up the device at the site, it will connect to the Internet and access a remote server located in the cloud. Once the site has been commissioned, the engineer can repeat this task on every site, without having to configure each unit independently.

Cloud-based networking allows for mass, repetitive rollout for any customer requirement. The Merlin range, with the support of Activator, provides ease of use for legacy replacement and migration towards a full IP network.

Another advantage of cloud-based infrastructure is its high uptime. Cloud providers typically have several sites located near each other geographically, so if one goes down, the others immediately take over. As a result, high uptime is possible, which wasn't possible previously.