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Showing posts with label Cloud Wireless Infrastructure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cloud Wireless Infrastructure. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Be our guest to great wireless! Introducing the Guest Management Portal
Meraki » The Official Meraki Blog
Meraki Enterprise customers will now notice a new feature on the Network-wide Settings page under the Configure tab in Dashboard: the ability to create guest ambassador accounts. Guest ambassador accounts give an office receptionist the ability to create guest access accounts for Meraki wireless networks.
Guest Ambassador accounts give the user access to a single page in Dashboard: the new Guest Management Portal. Using the portal the receptionist can create username and password credentials on-the-fly to distribute to guests that will automatically expire after a specified time period.
This new feature makes it even easier to offer hassle-free guest access wireless to your visitors while maintaining the security and access control that you need for your corporate network.
- Posted by Greg Williams
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Friday, 18 June 2010
Meraki Launches Lobby Ambassador, Bringing Powerful Guest Management to Organizations of All Sizes | Meraki
Meraki, the cloud-based wireless networking company, today announced the release of Lobby Ambassador, which provides fine-grained guest management for wireless networks. Lobby Ambassador is the first such system that eliminates complex management appliances and wireless controller hardware, instead leveraging cloud computing and intuitive, web-based software.
Typically, providing wireless access to guests and visitors requires creating an open network that anyone can join, scribbling passwords on post-its, or deploying a back-end system to provide fine-grained access control for guests. All but the largest enterprises often lack the IT resources for these back-end systems, both from cost and complexity standpoints. Yet these organizations are left the most vulnerable by open guest networks. Unlike Fortune 500 corporate campuses, they typically have limited bandwidth, and have neighboring business and residences in range of their wireless network. As a result, abuse of their open guest networks can increase bandwidth costs and slow business-critical network usage.
With this in mind, Meraki designed Lobby Ambassador, an easy-to-use guest management system that can be set up with just a couple clicks. Since the system is part of the Meraki Enterprise Cloud Controller, organizations require no on-site management appliances or additional software licenses. Existing Meraki customers may access Lobby Ambassador immediately via the cloud, with no upgrades to purchase, download, or install on their network.
Lobby Ambassador provides an interface for non-technical personnel, such as receptionists, to give guests temporary access to the wireless network. Guest accounts can be set to automatically expire, or can be deleted when the guest has finished with the network. Lobby Ambassador works in tandem with Meraki’s Virtual Network Isolation, a technology that allows guests to use the same network infrastructure as employees, yet restricts guests from accessing private LAN resources (such as file servers) and prevents viruses from spreading from the guests’ computers to employees’ computers.
Lobby Ambassador provides the following capabilities:
• Delegation: Front-desk employees may manage guest accounts without having access to the rest of the system.
• Easy for administrators: Web-based software requires minimal training and no installed software.
• Easy for end users: Guests can self-register or get an account from a receptionist.
• Secure: Set an expiration time for guest accounts, or manually delete guest accounts once they have ended their visit.
• Multi-site: Manage guest accounts across buildings or sites over the web.
Remington Colleges, a Meraki customer with 20 campuses around the country, has been using Lobby Ambassador on its networks.
“I’m impressed with the Lobby Ambassador system and foresee it being a really special service we can leverage at our various campuses, not just for security purposes but as another way to market ourselves to prospective students,” said Chuck Farraj, CIO at Remington Colleges. “When new students come to visit the college to decide if it’s the right place for them, it’s a nerve wracking experience. Easing that transition by giving them Wi-Fi access, especially on their WAP-enabled mobile device or smart phone, goes a long way in building a positive first experience.”
“Guest access systems have been around for a while, yet the great majority of wireless networks don’t have one because they are a pain to setup and administer,” said Hans Robertson, VP Product Management and Co-Founder. “We’ve solved that problem. With Meraki Lobby Ambassador there’s no software to integrate, licenses to buy, or dependencies on other infrastructure. Implementation takes about 30 seconds, and it just works.”
Lobby Ambassador is available for immediate use by all Meraki Enterprise Cloud Controller customers.
Join Us: http://bit.ly/joincloud
Typically, providing wireless access to guests and visitors requires creating an open network that anyone can join, scribbling passwords on post-its, or deploying a back-end system to provide fine-grained access control for guests. All but the largest enterprises often lack the IT resources for these back-end systems, both from cost and complexity standpoints. Yet these organizations are left the most vulnerable by open guest networks. Unlike Fortune 500 corporate campuses, they typically have limited bandwidth, and have neighboring business and residences in range of their wireless network. As a result, abuse of their open guest networks can increase bandwidth costs and slow business-critical network usage.
With this in mind, Meraki designed Lobby Ambassador, an easy-to-use guest management system that can be set up with just a couple clicks. Since the system is part of the Meraki Enterprise Cloud Controller, organizations require no on-site management appliances or additional software licenses. Existing Meraki customers may access Lobby Ambassador immediately via the cloud, with no upgrades to purchase, download, or install on their network.
Lobby Ambassador provides an interface for non-technical personnel, such as receptionists, to give guests temporary access to the wireless network. Guest accounts can be set to automatically expire, or can be deleted when the guest has finished with the network. Lobby Ambassador works in tandem with Meraki’s Virtual Network Isolation, a technology that allows guests to use the same network infrastructure as employees, yet restricts guests from accessing private LAN resources (such as file servers) and prevents viruses from spreading from the guests’ computers to employees’ computers.
Lobby Ambassador provides the following capabilities:
• Delegation: Front-desk employees may manage guest accounts without having access to the rest of the system.
• Easy for administrators: Web-based software requires minimal training and no installed software.
• Easy for end users: Guests can self-register or get an account from a receptionist.
• Secure: Set an expiration time for guest accounts, or manually delete guest accounts once they have ended their visit.
• Multi-site: Manage guest accounts across buildings or sites over the web.
Remington Colleges, a Meraki customer with 20 campuses around the country, has been using Lobby Ambassador on its networks.
“I’m impressed with the Lobby Ambassador system and foresee it being a really special service we can leverage at our various campuses, not just for security purposes but as another way to market ourselves to prospective students,” said Chuck Farraj, CIO at Remington Colleges. “When new students come to visit the college to decide if it’s the right place for them, it’s a nerve wracking experience. Easing that transition by giving them Wi-Fi access, especially on their WAP-enabled mobile device or smart phone, goes a long way in building a positive first experience.”
“Guest access systems have been around for a while, yet the great majority of wireless networks don’t have one because they are a pain to setup and administer,” said Hans Robertson, VP Product Management and Co-Founder. “We’ve solved that problem. With Meraki Lobby Ambassador there’s no software to integrate, licenses to buy, or dependencies on other infrastructure. Implementation takes about 30 seconds, and it just works.”
Lobby Ambassador is available for immediate use by all Meraki Enterprise Cloud Controller customers.
Join Us: http://bit.ly/joincloud
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
iPad Guzzles Network Capacity
Wireless network provider Meraki has reported that iPad usage consumed more than half the network capacity of one installation despite accounting for less than 10% of the devices on the network.
Wireless network provider Meraki reported that its Network Insight fingerprint technology has been used at an MIT installation that found iPad usage has been consuming more than one-half of the network’s capacity, yet the devices accounted for just 9% of the total devices attached to the network.
In announcing the results of the test, Meraki didn’t pass judgment on the high use, but it’s obvious that the iPad can turn out to be a huge consumer of network capacity.
Meraki, which specializes in delivering wireless networking through the cloud, reported this week that tests taken during a week in May compared the use of different devices on a network at MIT’s CSAIL network, the university’s largest interdepartmental laboratory. More than 300MB was transferred during the week by the average iPad user. iPhone users averaged 31MB and iPod Touch users averaged 12 MB.
The results take on new significance when compared with AT&T’s unveiling this week of metered data plans that include plans with 200 MB and 2GB limits. The average 300MB that was recorded by iPad users in the week would indicate that AT&T subscribers with the larger $25 a-month data plan would come in under AT&T’s limit, although the $15 plan would easily be exceeded by iPad users, at least at the MIT installation.
AT&T has been the exclusive provider of Apple handsets in the U.S.
Meraki touts its Network Insight technology for providing network administrators with a forensics tool to analyze network activity as an aid in troubleshooting. The deep packet inspection technology suffers no drop in performance and operates at line-rate, Meraki said.
“There is incredible excitement around the iPad, yet network administrators are eyeing it with caution,” said Kiren Sekar, Meraki product manager, in a statement. “Administrators need visibility into their networks to see the iPad’s impact.”
Meraki noted that once the Network Insight technology is captured, it is uploaded to the firm’s Enterprise Cloud Controller, which hosts the firm’s network intelligence platform. Network administrators can then access the data through the company’s dashboard management tool.
InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on the expanding profile of data deduplication. Download the report here (registration required).
Wireless network provider Meraki reported that its Network Insight fingerprint technology has been used at an MIT installation that found iPad usage has been consuming more than one-half of the network’s capacity, yet the devices accounted for just 9% of the total devices attached to the network.
In announcing the results of the test, Meraki didn’t pass judgment on the high use, but it’s obvious that the iPad can turn out to be a huge consumer of network capacity.
Meraki, which specializes in delivering wireless networking through the cloud, reported this week that tests taken during a week in May compared the use of different devices on a network at MIT’s CSAIL network, the university’s largest interdepartmental laboratory. More than 300MB was transferred during the week by the average iPad user. iPhone users averaged 31MB and iPod Touch users averaged 12 MB.
The results take on new significance when compared with AT&T’s unveiling this week of metered data plans that include plans with 200 MB and 2GB limits. The average 300MB that was recorded by iPad users in the week would indicate that AT&T subscribers with the larger $25 a-month data plan would come in under AT&T’s limit, although the $15 plan would easily be exceeded by iPad users, at least at the MIT installation.
AT&T has been the exclusive provider of Apple handsets in the U.S.
| |
“There is incredible excitement around the iPad, yet network administrators are eyeing it with caution,” said Kiren Sekar, Meraki product manager, in a statement. “Administrators need visibility into their networks to see the iPad’s impact.”
Meraki noted that once the Network Insight technology is captured, it is uploaded to the firm’s Enterprise Cloud Controller, which hosts the firm’s network intelligence platform. Network administrators can then access the data through the company’s dashboard management tool.
InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on the expanding profile of data deduplication. Download the report here (registration required).
Join Us: http://bit.ly/joincloud
Thursday, 20 May 2010
Meraki Now Supports Smart Client Roaming
To support the needs of some of our large service provider customers, Meraki now supports the Wi-Fi Alliance WISPr protocol.
What this means is that wireless users who subscribe to a multi-provider service like Boingo can roam across different service provider networks like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Telmex and authenticate seamlessly via RADIUS without the need to interact with a captive portal.
This is similar to how cellphone users are allowed to roam across different networks, and is also known as Smart Client roaming; For example, one of our larger service provider customers can now allow users to roam across networks covering hundreds of Starbucks cafes and restaurants like Burger King; This allows service providers to offer convenient, hassle-free wireless access wherever their customers need it with minimum hassle as an added value service to their subscribers;
This is a great example of how Meraki networks can be used by service providers to expand their businesses and improve service levels to their own customers.
Join Us: http://bit.ly/joincloud
What this means is that wireless users who subscribe to a multi-provider service like Boingo can roam across different service provider networks like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Telmex and authenticate seamlessly via RADIUS without the need to interact with a captive portal.
This is similar to how cellphone users are allowed to roam across different networks, and is also known as Smart Client roaming; For example, one of our larger service provider customers can now allow users to roam across networks covering hundreds of Starbucks cafes and restaurants like Burger King; This allows service providers to offer convenient, hassle-free wireless access wherever their customers need it with minimum hassle as an added value service to their subscribers;
This is a great example of how Meraki networks can be used by service providers to expand their businesses and improve service levels to their own customers.
Join Us: http://bit.ly/joincloud
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