Zodiac Light Waves

Background

Founded in 1997, Zodiac Light Waves provides comprehensive technology solutions for senior living communities, nursing homes, medical clinics, and private hospitals across Canada. Offering full-stack services including telephony, nurse call systems, Wi-Fi, cybersecurity, cameras, and access control, Zodiac manages diverse networks supporting critical healthcare operations.

Prior to adopting UniFi, Zodiac relied extensively on legacy solutions such as Cisco, Aruba, and Fortinet. While powerful, these systems often came with significant complexity, costly licensing fees, and cumbersome management requirements, especially at scale.

Business Objectives

Enterprise-Level Reliability and Redundancy: Senior care and healthcare environments demand constant uptime. Even minor disruptions can affect patient care and facility operations significantly.

Simplified Network Management: Zodiac's technical team required a streamlined solution for configuring, managing, and troubleshooting networks across multiple geographically distributed sites.

Cost Efficiency & Licensing Transparency: The previous reliance on traditional enterprise vendors resulted in high l

Why UniFi?

Zodiac initially perceived UniFi as a solution for smaller-scale deployments like cafés or small businesses. Hesam Mahdavi, Zodiac's Technology Director, was initially skeptical:

Scalable, License-Free Model: Transitioning away from traditional vendors like Cisco, Aruba, and Fortinet, Zodiac quickly realized the financial and operational benefits of UniFi’s license-free approach.

Enterprise-Level Hardware: UniFi Enterprise products (EFG, UXG Pro) provided robust performance suitable for high-density, high-demand environments.

Ease of Deployment and Management: UniFi's intuitive cloud-based platform simplified setup, drastically reducing configuration time and maintenance complexity.

Deployment and Solution

Zodiac conducted an initial small-scale UniFi test deployment, rapidly moving onto a larger project: a 20-story facility in downtown Ottawa:

179 U6 Long-Range Access Points: Overcame dense Wi-Fi interference challenges, ensuring reliable connectivity for residents and staff.

33 Network Switches and 2 Aggregate Switches: Ensured robust performance with built-in redundancy.

UniFi Enterprise Gateway (EFG) and UXG Pro: Enhanced VPN connectivity, significantly simplifying secure site-to-site communication with Zodiac’s Ottawa headquarters. UniFi LTE Backup: Ensured near-zero downtime, critical in healthcare environments where continuous connectivity is non-negotiable.

Results and Benefits

Significant Cost Savings: Elimination of licensing fees reduced overhead considerably, allowing Zodiac to reinvest savings into customer-focused initiatives.

Simplified, Time-Saving Management: Mahdavi was able to remotely troubleshoot critical issues in minutes—even from his smartphone—highlighting the ease of UniFi’s Cloud Management.

Enhanced Security: UniFi's integrated cybersecurity solutions proactively identified and mitigated threats that other enterprise-grade firewalls missed.

Future Growth and Standardization

Zodiac has fully standardized all new deployments on UniFi’s platform. Future expansions, including large-scale projects, camera systems, access control, and potentially UniFi Talk for VoIP integration, are already planned.

Conclusion

Zodiac Light Waves transitioned from skepticism to becoming advocates of UniFi solutions, successfully deploying an enterprise-grade network that reduced complexity, costs, and dramatically improved reliability for their healthcare clients. With UniFi, Zodiac confidently supports Canada's senior care industry, empowering facilities to maintain exceptional patient care through consistent, reliable connectivity and simplified network management.

UniFi’s full-stack solution has become Zodiac’s new standard, ensuring scalable, cost-effective, and future-proof networks across Canada's healthcare landscape.