Cloud Distribution - PRODUCT NEWS

Expand Networks Showcases Satellite Optimization Success at Global Mil SatCom 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Expand Networks, www.expand.com, the leader in optimizing WANs for branch office consolidation and virtualization, will be discussing the latest innovations in acceleration techniques for optimizing high-latency satellite networks in the most challenging of military environments at Global MilSatcom, 2010, Millennium Conference Centre, London.

Expand is exhibiting with partner, satellite communications specialist, Sematron, during the three day conference. Visit the Sematron stand to learn about Expand Networks full range of WAN Optimization capabilities and discover how it’s virtual and mobile accelerators are advancing the scalability, affordability and performance benefits of WAN optimization across military, government and service provider environments.

Howard Teicher, Vice President for Public Sector & Satellite Markets explains, “Operating enterprise-class applications over low bandwidth-high latency satellite links demands a dynamic, robust WAN Optimization capability to satisfy all network performance requirements. Expand’s flexible deployment options, including virtual appliances running on commodity hardware, and client software for individual workstations, provide an efficient optimization capability for every environment.”

Expand’s WAN optimization technology, with integrated Space Communication Protocol Standard (SCPS) technology, mitigates the effect of low bandwidth and high latency obstacles that can traditionally impede the speed and performance of applications over satellite links. Combining SCPS with compression, byte-level caching and layer 7 QoS, Expand’s protocol agnostic approach accelerates all critical productivity tools and business applications across satellite environments.

Expand’s continued technology innovations have long inspired confidence in the delivery of communications tools over satellite networks, continuing to lead the way in military and government satellite networks, such as the US Army WIN-T INC II environment. Its Accelerators are also battle-proven in Afghanistan and Iraq with U.S military agencies.

“Expand Networks has long and widespread experience with national security communications programs at sea, on land and in the air,” Teicher said. “With the industry’s best performance over satellite, and dynamic, robust WAN Optimization capability, Expand is best-placed to help organizations overcome the traditional low bandwidth, high latency obstacles that impede the speed and performance of applications and services over satellite networks.”

http://expand.com/news-events/release.aspx?pressID=68e275f1-997f-40d5-a273-802800083ab2

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Meraki Releases Next Generation 802.11n Access Points (APs ...

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Meraki, the cloud-based networking company, today announced the release of its next generation enterprise 802.11n access points (APs). These APs boast improved performance, lower cost, a striking one inch thin design, and are the easiest enterprise access points to deploy and manage.

The two new access points upgrade Meraki's award-winning 802.11n lineup. The new Meraki MR16 is a dual-concurrent 802.11n access point, designed for demanding enterprise and campus deployments. Â The Meraki MR12 is a single-radio 802.11n access point, ideally suited for small branches, teleworkers, and home office deployments.

"There are many things to love about Meraki's wireless products," says Bobby Clark, I.T. Project Manager at Remington College, who beta-tested the new APs. "The styling of the MR16 is great, it installs very easily, and then blends into your environment. Â We've been extremely happy with the performance, and the cost savings were a huge plus."

Improved Radio Performance

4th generation, 2x2 MIMO chipsets deliver speeds up to 300 mbit/sec for the MR12 and 600 mbit/sec for the MR16. Both APs feature improved transmit power and receive sensitivity over their predecessors, while their high capacity design supports over 100 users per access point. "We are amazed at how many clients one AP can handle and the area of coverage it provides," noted Clark. "This allowed us to replace our previous vendor's APs with fewer Meraki APs and at the same time provide better performance."

Industry's Slimmest 802.11n Access Points

At less than one inch thin, the MR12 and MR16 blend seamlessly into their environment. Unlike other network infrastructure products, wireless access points live out in the open, where a poor design will irk discerning users. The APs' low profile, small footprint, and internal antennas enable mounting in high traffic environments such as lobbies and conference rooms, without creating eyesores for end users and guests.

"When I first got the new MR16 in my hands," commented Clark, "my initial thoughts were of shock at how small the unit was... Meraki gives you a clean minimalist styling that allows their AP's to easily blend with your environment."

"The design challenges of building a one inch thin access point are tremendous," remarks Ben Calderon, V.P. of hardware engineering at Meraki. "The radios, enclosure, shielding, and antenna design all required careful engineering. But in the end, these access points not only have the lowest profile in their class, but actually have higher performance than their predecessors. "

Value Priced, Uncompromised Features

Unlike other value-priced access points, the MR12 and MR16 feature top of the line enterprise capabilities, including spectrum analysis, application-aware traffic shaping, and a policy firewall for guest, user, and group-based access control. In fact, the MR12 and MR16 are the only access points in their respective price classes to include all of these advanced enterprise features.

Environmentally Friendly Design

Meraki's next generation APs come in a low-volume, 100% recyclable packaging, with documentation provided online. 90% of the access point hardware itself is recyclable, and Meraki's unique multi-tenant cloud-based controller radically reduces power consumption and cooling.

Designed to Simply Work

All facets of the MR12 and MR16 from component selection to firmware and factory testing have been optimized for fast installation, intuitive management, and ongoing reliability:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.worldmarketmedia.com/1876/section.aspx/2065133/meraki-releases-next-generation-80211n-access-points-aps&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAEoATAAOABAhPj65gRIAlB-WABiBWVuLVVT&cd=K9wqDXLp-gQ&usg=AFQjCNHDa05-YRwhZR7kSu4ARLd7yKSpTw

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PC MAGAZINE REVIEW MERAKI CLOUD WIRELESS LAN

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Management Configuring your WLAN (or WLANs) is the next step and simple to do with the Cloud Controller. Name your WLAN and APs and it's pretty much routine configuration from there. The Cloud Controller can create up to fifteen different Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) so you can create different WLANs for different groups of users.

There are a number of enterprise-level features available within the management console. Set bandwidth limits, block clients from access or create a custom splash screen that users will see upon accessing your network. As with many enterprise level Wi-Fi solutions, you can opt to upload a map or floor plan to graphically represent the location of your APs. The "Monitor" overview section of the interface interacts with Google Maps. I was able to see the street and building that the APs were setup in.

The Monitor gives you other handy information like usage statistics, the throughput rate between each AP and Meraki's cloud as well as an exportable Event Log and native reports. You can also see a list of rogue APs in the area.

The interface is tailored for those not used to setting up WLANs. Any non-intuitive configuration setting has a link explaining what it does. For example, I was not personally familiar with the "Walled Garden" setting. Clicking on the "What is this?" link next brought up a definition--it allows you to specify an IP range users can access before officially logging into the WLAN, typically via a splash page like those you'd find in a hotel lobby before you access its Wi-Fi.

For businesses that want to bill for Internet access, that's an option. Meraki will send payments to you via PayPal or manual check on a monthly basis once accounts earn more that $20.00. Before you decide to throw a Meraki AP on your home network and charge your neighbors for access however, find out the terms and conditions set by your own Internet provider.

The Enterprise Cloud Controller interface is not the most feature-rich ever built, but it provides all the controls necessary to get one or more professional, secure WLANs in place.

Testing
Bandwidth and throughput testing were conducted with the Meraki gateway AP connected to a 1.5 Megabits per second (Mbps) DSL connection. The throughput test utility in Meraki's Cloud Controller interface accurately reflected the bandwidth of the DSL connection at 1.3 Mbps (taking into account that an ISP's stated bandwidth rate and the real-time rate often differ).

I used Ixia's IxChariot network performance software for throughput testing between two laptops connected to the internal Meraki-based WLAN. I wasn't blown away by the speed when I set the APs to use dual-band mode, enabling both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. I ran a simple test from one endpoint: a laptop running Windows 7 with an Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN adapter, to another laptop with Windows XP Pro and a Linksys Dual-band Wireless N adapter. At a distance of 15 feet, about midway between the gateway AP and the repeater, I got an average throughput of 7 Mbps and a maximum of 13 Mbps. I was impressed that moving an additional 15 feet away from the main AP did not cause any signal loss; the average rate at this distance was 9 Mbps and the maximum was 14 Mbps. This was helped by the repeater boosting the signal.

In the 5 GHz band I got much better results. At 15 feet away from the gateway AP, average throughput was 44 Mbps and 53 Mbps maximum. It decreased negligibly at 32 feet: average rate was 33 Mbps, maxing at 45 Mbps.

These are far from the highest wireless-N numbers we've seen. Consider the 158 Mbps rate we got when testing Ruckus' solution or the mind-blowing 232 Mbps of the D-Link Xtreme N Duo Media Router (DIR-855). But Meraki makes up for that with the controls and the ability to easily expand a network with the mesh architecture. Fast as D-Link's router might be, it's not capable of doing the same job Meraki or Ruckus do for a wide-spread business with a building or even a campus that needs Wi-Fi.

Bottom line
So what if Meraki doesn't make the highest performance 802.11n products we have ever seen, not even for a company focusing on the small office. The performance is still pretty good, and what they do get right 100% is setup, configuration, and continued use of a wireless mesh network, all quickly and painlessly. The ease made possible with the Cloud Controller puts Meraki in a class by themselves.

Original Article - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358134,00.asp

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MERAKI - All New Dashboard Radio Settings Page

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Meraki’s AutoRF technology performs automatic cloud-based, system-wide network optimization to ensure peak network performance in any environment. Each AP on a Meraki network continually monitors its environment for interference from other APs and feeds this information back to the Cloud Controller. Last month we added Spectrum Analysis, mitigating interference from non-WiFi devices like microwave ovens and Bluetooth headsets.

AutoRF has always run quietly in the background. But now, our new Radio Settings page gives you more visibility into what’s happening behind the scenes, and exposes new controls for advanced configuration.

The new Radio Power selector either allows the Cloud Controller to automatically dial back transmit power if it detects adjacent access points stepping on each others’ toes, or allows you to maintain full power for all APs.

The Channel Planning Report sheds light on how AutoRF is tuning your network, providing visibility into the current channel and transmit power settings for each AP, as well as the interference sources that were avoided. If you click on the “Details” link next to each row in the table, you will find a detailed report for all of the APs in your network on a particular channel.

Regular users of the Cloud Controller will notice that some settings previously found under Network Wide Settings have moved to this page, where they fit naturally.

We hope that you find this Radio Settings page helps you better understand how the Cloud Controller is optimizing your network, and helps you to make more informed decisions about how to use the Cloud Controller’s RF controls. Please let us know what you like, what you don’t, and what you’d like to see next!

http://meraki.com/blog/2010/10/all-new-dashboard-radio-settings-page/

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EXPAND NETWORKS - PUT WAN OPTIMIZATION TO THE TEST ON YOUR NETWORK

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000

PUT EXPAND ACCELERATORS TO THE TEST ON YOUR NETWORK

Expand's Industry leading Wan Optimization technology enables the building blocks to deliver and control centralized Branch Office IT infrastructures over the WAN. Ensuring your branch office users receive acceptable SLA response times, ensuring maximum user productivity.

Your Free 15 Day Evaluation
Expand Networks enables you to see how your current WAN is performing.

With more optimization, functionality, and reliability residing in a single appliance, Expand Technology means WAN Optimization makes business sense.

-
Gain visibility into your WAN application & traffic flows

-
Apply Layer 7 QoS to prioritize business critical applications

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Avoid costly bandwidth upgrades using our virtual bandwidth features

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Improve Application Response times over the WAN

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Mitigate the impact of latency on WAN traffic flows

Expand Networks reserves the right to limit, or restrict upon notice, participation in the offer to any person at any time for any reason.
Best Regards,
Expand Networks
Simply click here and register your details for your 15 day evaluation

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MOBILEIRON - The Enterprise Smartphone is Dead

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Today, I was watching my son trying to figure out why touching the screen on a BlackBerry Bold does nothing.

Last week, I saw a fantastic presentation from the most innovative IT organization in pharma talking about never building another enterprise app … instead building consumer apps for employees to use.
The week before, at CTIA, I saw some new Android “enterprise-class” phones and couldn’t help but think that design by committee never works.

Sure, there have been a ton of articles written about the consumerization of mobility and IT in general, in the enterprise. But it did strike me that many of us have been looking at this trend through an inverted lens.
The IT organization in most companies is still adamant about trying to put in place policies and restrictions to make smartphones and tablets feel more like laptops, at least from a security and management perspective. This is very understandable because the consequences of security failure are high and so we’re trying to keep the enterprise smartphone alive. But we can’t resuscitate the dead (employees don’t want to use the “old-gen” devices) so we’re dressing up the newcomers to look like the predictable and known.

But it’s no longer about IT. It’s about the user. And that user – that person - is a consumer 24 hours a day. Sometimes they consume personal services, and sometimes professional, but their expectations are equivalent for both.

There will be no more enterprise smartphones or tablets. There will only be fantastic consumer experiences that can be configured securely. So “enterprise” becomes a configuration option, not a design constraint. If I don’t want to use a particular phone or tablet on the weekend, I also don’t want to use it during the week.
Instead of IT telling me “Here is the device you will use for wireless email“, I will now ask IT “How will you give me a mobile work experience I love?”

Command-and-control will fracture and move to cooperation. The enterprise risk increases, without a doubt, but so does the value. That’s a scary equation for most companies because it feels uncertain. But it is inevitable and I’ll write in an upcoming blog about how some IT teams are taking on this challenge one step at a time.

http://mobileiron.com/blog/2010/10/the-enterprise-smartphone-is-dead/

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MERAKI - Leave the bug spray to us

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Cisco recently issued a security advisory about several serious vulnerabilities for its wireless LAN controllers, including DoS, privilege escalation, and ACL bypass vulnerabilities. These liabilities could allow attackers to modify your controller’s configuration or bypass your ACLs—so if it were my network, I’d certainly want a fix.
Cisco issued software updates, but they’re no quick-snap remedy. Here’s what I’d need to do before I could download the new release:

Follow Cisco’s instructions on the command-line to determine which software version is running on my controller.
Verify if my software version is an affected release. If it is, confirm which versions are “fixed” and note the “recommended release.”
Download and install the patch.

A few of the steps for determining patch compatibility from cisco.com

The real kicker is what I’m signing up for when I actually install the patches. From Cisco’s advisory:

In all cases, customers should exercise caution to be certain the devices to be upgraded contain sufficient memory and that current hardware and software configurations will continue to be supported properly by the new release… Prior to deploying software, customers should consult their maintenance provider or check the software for feature set compatibility and known issues specific to their environment.

We don’t mean to pick on Cisco here, and we certainly aren’t implying that one vendor’s products are more secure than another’s. With any complex system, bugs and security patches will happen. But the customer experience of dealing with these patches for traditional, behind-the-firewall appliances like wireless controllers is a royal pain. At best, they result in headaches, downtime, and frustration. At worst, administrators miss patches altogether, and their systems are vulnerable. Fortunately, The Cloud points to a better way.

The Cloud Controller, like other cloud applications such as Gmail and Salesforce.com, is always up to date. We push out new features, bug fixes, performance improvements, etc. several times a day. This is completely invisible to the customer, save for new features appearing from time to time. (How we do this, and maintain quality, is pretty interesting, but we’ll save that for another post.)

But what about the firmware running on our APs? They aren’t in the cloud… Are they resigned to the fate of traditional patch management?

Fortunately, an AP that can be managed from the cloud can also be upgraded from the cloud, seamlessly and automatically. Our Cloud Controller knows with certainty that all of the Meraki access points deployed around the world are up to date, with the latest features, fixes, and yes, security patches.

Since we can install firmware seamlessly, over the web, we’ve been able to release new firmware every three months or so, continually delivering new features to our customers. We just did one, in fact – with firmware support for application-aware traffic shaping.

Here’s what our customers saw in their dashboard before the update:

Firmware Upgrade Notification in the Meraki Dashboard

Customers can let the upgrade happen on its own, schedule it when they want it, or click “Upgrade Now” to get it right away. It’s worth noting that the upgrade process was engineered to be completely fault tolerant. Say, for example, you lose power in the middle of a firmware update. No problem, the AP will boot up with its previous firmware once power is restored. This technology has let us do quarterly upgrades for four years straight and keep customers happy.

We’re excited about how this system has not only eliminated headaches for our customers, but has also enabled us to innovate much faster. We hope to see this architecture spread to other types of infrastructure, so patch management nightmares some day become a thing of the past.

http://meraki.com/blog/2010/10/leave-the-bug-spray-to-us/

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MERAKI - What’s better than Traffic Visibility? Traffic Shaping!

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 14:49:00 +0000

Last month we announced our new Traffic Shaper feature and gave administrators unprecedented visibility into the wireless traffic on their network, providing the ability to see what might be bogging down their network, be it YouTube, BitTorrent or too many users uploading pictures to Facebook. Now, with the new Traffic Shaper page in Dashboard, administrators finally have the tools to not only see what kinds of recreational applications are taking over their network but to do something about it!
Administrators can now create application-specific shaping policies for total control over their wireless bandwidth. Let's say your Sales team needs snappy access to Salesforce.com at all times, but most of Engineering is streaming World Series games and consuming all of your bandwidth. With Traffic Shaper, shaping policies can be created that apply per user bandwidth limits for specific applications such as video streaming sites, as well as apply QoS priority levels at both Layer 2 and 3 to make sure your Salesforce traffic gets prioritized across the network.
To make setting up new shaping policies fast and simple, we have created pre-defined groups of applications that administrators most commonly want to shape:

Administrators can also create more specific policies for particular applications using HTTP hostnames (eg. salesforce.com), IP and port numbers. Here is an example of a typical shaping policy that you would see in an office setting:

In this example, a rule has been created to apply a 1 Mbps bandwidth limit to all users on the Meraki-Corp SSID for Peer-to-Peer and streaming video and music applications. A second rule has also been created to provide Layer 3 QoS prioritization to applications that are critical to this business, Salesforce.com and Dropbox.com, as well as to provide unlimited bandwidth to these applications.
Since Traffic Shaper can leverage the intelligence of over 16,000 customer networks through the Meraki Cloud Controller, Traffic Shaper's database of application signatures is always updated. As new P2P and social media applications appear on the scene, they will be quickly fingerprinted and added to the Cloud Controller database for our customer networks so that administrators are never caught unaware by the next BitTorrent.
Traffic Shaper can now be found under the Configure tab in Dashboard. If you are interested in learning more about how Traffic Shaper works, we invite you to join us for a webinar that we'll be conducting about Traffic Shaper on November 2nd. Details can be found here:
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NTT Europe Announces First Phase of Global Rollout for Enhanced ...

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0000

NTT Europe is today announcing the launch of its Compute Cloud service to be offered under NTT Com's BizCITY(R) concept of providing secure access to enterprise services from anyplace at anytime. Further launches into new territories are expected in Q1 2011 to enhance NTT Com's desire to provide truly global product offerings with one contract, one SLA and one customer portal.

NTT Europe has successfully been providing private cloud (Global Virtualization Services: branded BizHosting Global inJapan) and public cloud (OpSource-powered Cloud Solution) solutions. The new Compute Cloud service will further complement these existing offerings. Customers will be able to redistribute network, compute and storage resources between multiple environments, on-demand whilst maintaining high levels of security and accountability. This function allows customers to meet the needs of different types of environments such as: Live/Production, Test/Pre-production, Customer Trials, Development Playgrounds/Sandboxes, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery.

In order to control Compute Cloud, users will have a dedicated customer portal giving them the ability to remotely manage the Compute Cloud environment. Customers can deploy, configure and delete virtual machines as required, monitoring performance requirements in real time. Resources can be scaled for purpose at the click of a button, whilst a pay-as-you-go pricing structure ensures customers only pay for what they use.

Stephane Estevez, Product Marketing Manager of NTT Europe, said "The profile of the individual project or the application being put into the cloud determines the type of cloud service required. When it comes to IT infrastructure, there is always a balancing act, and it is very clear to us that it is the level of performance required of the application and its business sensitivity, not the size of the company, that determines which service is best suited. NTT Europe can design solutions of multiple cloud configurations helping customers to reap the benefits of each and manage the integration between them and existing in-house IT infrastructures."

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://newsblaze.com/story/2010101302380100001.pnw/topstory.html&ct=ga&cad=:s7:f1:v0:d2:i0:lt:e0:p0:t1286963808:&cd=AdTtFCq5zDA&usg=AFQjCNE37G6ujh0zvDYQGVXluEHwT0y_SA

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Meraki Aims for Enterprise – eWeek | Headset Walkie Talkie

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:43:00 +0000

The latest update to Meraki Cloud Controllers and 802.11n access points adds application visibility and throttling capability, along with some limited spectrum visibility for non-WiFi interference.

The latest update to the Meraki Cloud Controller and Meraki’s 802.11n access points delivers a hit-and-miss collection of enterprise-class features designed to provide customers with improved visibility into and control over WiFi usage, along with automated reactions to non-WiFi sources of interference.

Released to customers at the end of September, the update delivers a suite of new features designed to help optimize and streamline network performance to Meraki’s APs and Cloud Controller. New application and content insight into wireless traffic grants Meraki the ability to fine-tune network performance by shaping traffic usage on specific networks, while Auto RF gives the network some self-healing capabilities with the ability to compensate against both WiFi and non-WiFi interferers.

I tested the Meraki Cloud Controller in conjunction with a pair of Meraki MR14 access points, replacing our corporate WiFi deployment with the Meraki products for just under a month, servicing dozens of users and devices on two different WiFi networks over that time. Each MR-14 costs $799 and offers a pair of dual-band 802.11n radios (2 stream, 2 by 2 MIMO) and a single 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet-compliant gigabit Ethernet port. Licensing for the Cloud Controller costs an additional $150 for one year and includes product support, maintenance, and upgrades, or purchasers may opt for the three-year license for $300 each.

New application visibility provides detailed information about network usage, identifying not only network ports and protocols used but specific application information as well, in order to help break out how Web traffic is being consumed. Meraki utilizes its global network to help fingerprint Web applications, helping them suss out identifying application characteristics and behaviors and organizing applications into categories. Meraki claims application fingerprints are updated to Cloud Controllers all the time, so the network should be able to respond quickly if an application changes its behavior.

Administrators can view application usage information on global or a personal scale. I found I could look at traffic from the last two hours, or the last day, week or month and access pie charts displaying the traffic mix over that time, highlighting sites or applications used most. For example, in my network, I found that over a month, 63.2 percent of the aggregate WiFI traffic consisted of encrypted SSL traffic to Microsoft.com. Skype, generic Web traffic to non-fingerprinted sites, Exchange traffic to our hosted e-mail provider and Windows File sharing traffic rounded out the top five applications over that time.

Usage totals for the individual WiFi clients are broken out below the pie charts. Meraki leverages the user name (if using user-based network authentication) or the device host name to identify the device, rather than the MAC address, making it easier to attribute a device to a user. Drilling down into an individual client displays more application information, breaking out network port usage, application usage and HTTP content mixes into separate pie charts. I also found I could create my own customized pie charts for the applications, sites or network services I specifically want to track.

Beyond the fun Orwellian aspect of knowing pretty much everything that my wireless users have been up to for the last month, Meraki utilizes this information for something constructive as well, delivering traffic-shaping capability beyond simple port-based QoS. Specifically, with Traffic Shaper, administrators can create rules to limit a user’s bandwidth usage for a specific type of traffic or, if not yet fingerprinted, for a specific Website. These throughput limits can be aggregated, or set separately for both uplink and downlink traffic. Meraki offers several different categories of traffic that can be shaped: music/video, e-mail, VOIP/Video conferencing or peer-to-peer networking, among others.

As an example, I was able to limit video services to each client attached to one of my wireless networks (I set up Meraki to service two networks) to just 100 kilobits per second. This caused the Netflix application running on an iPhone associated to that network to provide a much choppier experience with lots of pauses for buffering, while a network speed test performed using the same device was not subject to the same throughput limitations.

Following the path well blazed over the last six months by Cisco, Aruba and Meru, with this update Meraki added spectrum analysis functionality to their APs and Cloud Controller with the new Auto RF feature. Auto RF allows the Meraki network to hear non-WiFi sources of interference cluttering up the RF around the network and adjust network settings to compensate automatically. However, I was underwhelmed with the feature compared to similar capabilities of those other products, finding Meraki’s implementation less helpful and less configurable.

To force a manual interference scan, I had to switch the AP's mode, causing the AP to reject client connections to both radios (on the other hand, both Cisco and Aruba allow client connections during RF scanning). This requirement is especially unfortunate because the Cloud Controller only shows RF data for the 2.4 GHz band, meaning one radio is taken offline for no apparent reason.

The RF data presented from a manual scan to the administrator is fairly underwhelming. The Cloud Controller shows an instantaneous sample of the detected interference signal strength and affected part of the spectrum, as well as a cumulative distribution that shows those detections over time. But the scans only display noise levels, so while the feature may quantify interference generated by a microwave oven or wireless camera, Meraki won’t explicitly identify the possible source of the interference. The administrator has to figure out what is causing the noise, then go try to find it. Not that Meraki presents any information to help correlate those findings across APs.

Auto RF, on the other hand, listens for non-WiFi noise as part of the AP's normal course of operation, listening by default on channels being serviced by the AP, and to the other channels as part of either scheduled or opportunistic sweeps of the spectrum. APs package up both WiFi and non-WiFi interferer data and send it all to the Cloud Controller, where current and historical data is analyzed against algorithms derived from thousands of other Meraki networks around the world.

Using that data, Auto RF can change an AP's channel assignment via the Cloud Controller when needed to work around interference, or it can adjust the radio transmit power levels. The network also now bumps capable clients from 5 GHz over the 2.4 GHz band to avoid the more congested airspace altogether. With a stark lack of a front end for Auto RF, however, it doesn’t appear there is a way at this time for an administrator to customize threshold levels for radio change events.

Also, manual interference scans tended to fail after limited use during my tests. One of my APs could conduct an interference scan for 5 to 10 minutes, while the other would fail in under a minute. The AP logs failed to identify a cause of this problem, but I’d hazard a guess it has to do with a lack of available memory on the AP.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://headsetwalkietalkie.com/5937/meraki-aims-for-enterprise-eweek/&ct=ga&cad=:s7:f1:v0:d2:i2:lt:e0:p0:t1287030321:&cd=vkKjg3fLKP0&usg=AFQjCNHS3QITiY6Eklu1Jwq3RWz-VEQQzQ

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Fwd: Expand Networks Demonstrates Optimum Satellite Services at SATCON 2010, New York

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Expand Networks is Exhibiting at SATCON 2010, BOOTH 314
JACOB JAVITS CONVENTION CENTER, NEW YORK
OCTOBER 13th - 14th

EXPAND WILL BE DEMONSTRATING THE LATEST INNOVATIONS IN ACCELERATION TECHNIQUES FOR OPTIMIZING SATELLITE LINKS
Expand Networks (www.expand.com) will showcase its full range of WAN Optimization capabilities across satellite environments during the two day conference, revealing how its virtual and mobile accelerators are advancing the scalability, affordability and performance benefits of WAN optimization for satellite networks.

TO REGISTER
To learn more about WAN or Satellite Optimization, do please visit our booth where our Satellite Team lead by Howard Teicher, VP for Public Sector & Satellite markets, will be delighted to meet you!

For your complimentary exhibitor guest pass, you can register at www.satconexpo.com and use source code CWCVP.

PRESS RELEASE To view the press release, click here >>

VISIT OUR KNOWLEDGE CENTRE For more information visit our Optimizing Satellite Communications Knowledge Centre >>

FIND OUT HOW

Optimizing IP traffic over satellite >>

We look forward to meeting you at SATCON 2010
Best Regards,
Expand Networks
www.expand.com

©2010 EXPAND NETWORKS INC. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRIVACY POLICY CONTACT US TOLL FREE: 1-888-892-1250

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Red Alert!! Enhanced Dashboard Alerts Now Available

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0000

We are excited to announce that network administrators now have enhanced alerting capabilities in Dashboard to help them stay up to date with their wireless network. Under Configure->Network-wide settings in the Network Alerts section you’ll see these expanded options:

Now you can select to receive prompt email alerts when an AP goes offline or switches from gateway to repeater mode, a new rogue AP is detected or configuration changes are made to your network settings in Dashboard. You can also customize the time delay before you are notified as well as qualify the type of rogue APs for which you are alerted to so you’re not bombarded with low priority updates. These alerts can be sent to multiple administrators via email.

The email alerts contain detailed information to help you determine the urgency of the situation, such as the AP that went offline or what configuration setting was changed.

In addition to the unprecedented visibility that is provided about your network through the Cloud via Dashboard’s reporting capabilities, these new alerts will now allow you to stay on top of your network even when not logged into Dashboard. These alerts are one more tool in the administrator’s toolkit to make managing Meraki networks remotely even simpler and to enable you to be more responsive to your end users’ needs. New alerts are now available to all Meraki customers.

http://meraki.com/blog/2010/09/enhanced-alerts-in-dashboard/

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Meraki Webinar Invite - 5 Success Factors for Upgrading to 802.11n

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Since wireless devices have become the norm, the need for organisations to provide a fast, reliable and secure wireless network has become a requirement. This webcast discusses how advancements in radio technologies, wireless management, and network automation have enabled small, leveraged IT staffs to deploy wireless, and meet employee's needs for bandwidth and mobility.

What's more, we are providing a FREE Meraki wireless access point*, along with a license for its award-winning Cloud Controller, to IT professionals who attend. This AP can be used in your office, or can be taken home, to provide an awesome, reliable professional-level WiFi experience at your house. This is a £250 value, provided free for all who attend.

Meraki has taken a unique approach to wireless. They move the complexity of the network from your infrastructure to the cloud, providing many benefits:.

* Centrally manage access points from an intuitive browser interface

* No controller hardware to buy, no software to install

* Secure access for employees, guests and devices

* Self-configuring adaptive mesh routing

* Scalability for networks of all sizes

We look forward to showing you how Meraki’s cloud-hosted controller architecture can help you implement a simpler, faster, and more cost-effective model for wireless networks.

* Please follow this link for details of how you qualify to receive your FREE Meraki wireless access point.

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Alvin schools select Meraki's cloud controlled WLAN Telecompaper

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Alvin Independent School District has selected cloud-based wireless networking company Meraki's cloud controlled WLAN to serve its 16,000 students and over 2,000 staff members. Alvin ISD has selected 771 Meraki MR14 access points.

Alvin ISD is based in Alvin, Texas, with 21 campuses, including two high schools, five junior high schools and thirteen elementary schools. Using Meraki's Enterprise Cloud Controller and self-configuring MR14 APs, Alvin ISD has deployed 530 APs across all of its campuses. Alvin ISD will deploy an additional 240 AP's as new campuses are added later this year.

The network will support Alvin ISD's technology initiatives, including 4,400 new netbooks being rolled out across its classrooms. Meraki's 802.11n network offers RF management and replaces HP system.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx%3Fcid%3D757834&ct=ga&cad=:s7:f1:v0:d2:i1:lt:e0:p0:t1285073436:&cd=4n_QZD_0Jxg&usg=AFQjCNEajXr_vVmwCFXqTIGJvEn-vs0PVw

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Fwd: City of Playford reaps the benefits of optimizing VDI traffic

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:00:00 +0000

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Expand Networks has added a new case study to its main website.

Title: City of Playford reaps the benefits of optimizing VDI traffic

"After just 5 minutes of the Expand devices being in place, six times more thin clients were able to connect to the VDI environment, allowing the council to fully utilise its resources available for the purpose of providing services to the public. We have now increased the number of clients able to connect via the VDI network 6 times over; we can now host 10-12 clients on a single link, which has dramatically improved user experience. This has enabled the council to provide a much better level of service to the users of the system who are now experiencing a 500% improvement in connection performance."
Shaun Emmott, Business Collaborator, at City of Playford Council

Date: 09/21/2010 08:00:00 AM

To download the case study, please click here

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Post-critical care using iPhone and iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:00:00 +0000

How MobileIron iOS device management enables iPad deployments.

As a leading provider of hospital-based rehabilitation facilities, medical and surgical therapies, and outpatient services, RehabCare has one important goal: helping people regain their lives after medical treatment. Now RehabCare has turned to iPhone and iPad to make both its caregiver services and its business operations faster, more accurate, and more responsive.

At the company’s headquarters in St. Louis, MO, as well as hospitals and medical facilities throughout the U.S., iPhone gives RehabCare employees immediate access to the resources they need, from business applications to phone, email, contacts, and calendars.

“Mobility is an enormous part of the job here,” says Dick Escue, Chief Information Officer. “We have more than 1200 client hospitals and Skilled Nursing Facilities in 43 states, and we also own 34 long-term acute care and rehabilitation hospitals. So a big part of IT at RehabCare is providing solutions to a workforce spread across the country. To meet that need, we are using iPhone, and iPad.”

“By giving therapists these devices, we can share information with them that we couldn’t before,” says Jim O’Brien, Assistant Vice President of Technology Services. “iPhone excites them because they know it’s helping them provide better patient care.”

Streamlined Patient Services

Before iPhone, patient preadmission screening was a time-consuming process involving multiple paper forms and questionnaires. To simplify this workflow, RehabCare built a customized iPhone app based on the Force.com development platform from Salesforce.com, and deployed via the App Store.

“We took that manual paper process and developed a cloud-based application in about a week,” explains Jayson R. Chitwood, Vice President of Information Services. “Collection of patient data can happen very quickly, and folks have access to it instantaneously. iPhone supports that immediate information transfer.”
RehabCare also contributed to the development of SmartTX Mobile from Casamba, a caregiver app that enables therapists to quickly record patient activities at point-of-care. With Smart TX on iPhone, therapists can record accurate, complete documentation of the time-based activities that drive their billing and compensation.

“Using a mobile device at point-of-care saves time,” says Chitwood. “We’re capturing the treatment delivered, the time spent, and any other relevant clinical information, which makes documentation more accurate and increases compliance.”

iPad Makes It Easy

Rolling out iPhone at RehabCare was straightforward — and iPad was even easier. “We knew we would be able to deploy to iPad rapidly, because the hurdles had already been cleared on the iPhone side,” Chitwood says.

For RehabCare’s executive staff, iPad has become the preferred business tool for meetings and presentations. “I'd rather use it than anything else to bring up email or look at my calendars,” says Escue. “The speed and the battery life are fantastic. I have days where I never turn around and use the desktop. I just use iPad.”
With its large, easy-to-read screen and fast Internet access, iPad is an unbeatable mobile interface for clinical applications and documentation, from diagnostic and imaging tools to nursing notes and patient intake forms. “iPad will be the new workstation for health care workers,” says O’Brien. “With iPad and virtualization technologies, there is nothing we can’t do. It was all about the proper form factor, size, and capabilities. And it’s all there, out of the box.”

Managing Devices Smarter

iPhone and iPad integrate easily into RehabCare’s mobile device management infrastructure, and require only minimal training and support. “It just works,” O’Brien says. “Connecting with Exchange to deal with contacts, calendar, and email is a very simple process.”

The IT team at RehabCare uses the MobileIron app to manage and monitor the company’s iPhones and iPads. MobileIron’s visually rich, intuitive interface allows them to track individual devices, perform remote wipes, and view custom reports in a management dashboard.

“We can see which devices are in compliance and which ones need updates,” says O’Brien. “MobileIron gives you better visual representation to get to the problems. This solution gives us just enough control, and also ensures that our mobile devices are functional and secure in this highly regulated industry.”
Using Citrix virtualization apps, RehabCare executives can remotely access corporate servers via iPhone or iPad. “Citrix enables us to use any enterprise application on these devices,” O’Brien says. “If I want to connect to our health information systems or get into my workstation, it’s the missing link.”

A Healthier Business

Equipping RehabCare’s staff with easy-to-use, process-driven apps on iPhone and iPad helps them improve patient care. It also makes for a more motivated workforce and a healthier bottom line. “iPhone instantly met or exceeded our most fundamental needs,” says Escue. “It reduces spending. It reduces staff requirements. It reduces our support workload significantly.”

“Whether we’re documenting a patient’s treatment, showing a potential patient or family member what our facilities look like, or delivering training to our therapists, we’ve got an iPhone or an iPad in place that supports them,” Chitwood says.

“Everything about RehabCare is people-centric,” adds Escue. “Helping people get back on their feet and get back to work. Using iPhone and iPad, we can do a better job of getting people back home.”

http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/rehabcare/

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FINANCIAL GIANT EURONET SECURES $100,000 SAVINGS WITH EXPAND NETWORKS’ WAN OPTIMIZATION

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Expand Networks Banks Success with Euronet India and Demonstrating Continued Leadership in APAC Markets

Expand Networks has been chosen by a global provider of electronic payment and transaction processing solutions, Euronet Worldwide, to assure service availability and optimum network performance. This latest project, with Euronet India, demonstrates Expand Networks’ continued market dominance in the APAC region and is set to provide Euronet cost-savings of over $100,000.

“Expand could reduce traffic by up to 70% using it’s byte level caching, which is fantastic. Expand could also help guarantee security with the IP-Sec protocol - a must for a financial organization like us. The solution’s unique combination of acceleration and compression techniques was the only solution that demonstrated the ability to resolve our network performance issues.”

Ashish Mehta, Director IT & Infrastructure (Asia Pacific & Middle East)

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OpSource Cloud Under the hood

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

In business since 2002, OpSource sells hosting services, infrastructure services for Software as a Service (SaaS) companies, and now VMware-based cloud services in a bid to compete with Amazon Web Services. But how does it stack up?

The OpSource Cloud is made up of these components:

Cloud Servers, or the virtual machines (VMs) or instances running in the OpSource cloud.
Cloud Networks, or the private, cloud-based networks used for communication in the OpSource cloud. These private networks can be accessed via a Cisco VPN connection that OpSource offers for free (and in a very intuitive manner).

The OpSource cloud is fairly intuitive to use...and overall the performance is acceptable.
Jason Langone, Contributor

Making assumptions from this graphic, one can assume that OpSource uses Dell servers running a VMware hypervisor, Cisco networking gear and both EMC and HP back-end storage for Cloud Files and the storage of the actual VMs.
OpSource also offers a 100% availability guarantee (which I'm not sure is even possible). After signing up for the OpSource cloud (a very straightforward process), the first step is to deploy a network.
OpSource Network

A network in the OpSource cloud is essentially a cloud-based LAN dedicated to a customer's environment. This cloud-based LAN is not accessible from the naked Internet; it requires the customer to establish a VPN connection into the cloud-based LAN. This network is the default network for VMs and allows the configuration of components such as firewalls, load balancing parameters, NAT rules and multicast networks.
For customers looking to host solutions with a publicly accessible address, a simple change to map a public IP address to an OpSource VM will allow anyone to hit the resource without requiring the VPN connection first.

OpSource Server
Once at least one network has been defined, it's now time to provision a VM or two. The list of available images is as follows:

Red Hat 5 Standard

64-bit 1 vCPU
64-bit 2 vCPU
64-bit 4 vCPU

Windows 2008 Server Standard

32bit 1 vCPU

At this time, there are no partner images available, although with OpSource allowing you to import your own VM, an argument could be made that the VMware Appliance Marketplace is a potential source of available images as well.

For this example, I deployed a Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition 32-bit with 1 vCPU, 2 GB of RAM and a 32 GB OS drive. The VM takes 10-15 minutes to fully build and customize. Once it is ready for use, it shows up in the "Servers" section of the user interface (UI).

More from Jason Langone:

Reviewing bluelock vCloud Express Working with Hosting.com, Logica and Melbourne IT
Analyzing Terremark as a VMware vCloud Express provider

On first login to the VM, my first impression is that the "Preparing Desktop" phase of my Windows VM goes very quick. In other providers, I've seen this last approximately 60 seconds, but I was on my desktop in less than 10 seconds.

I also deployed a few other VM, including a 2 vCPU instance. A few basic tests were run; overall, the performance within the OpSource cloud is good but could also be characterized as "unpredictable." For example, a 2 vCPU server had low CPU utilization but high CPU % ready times and overall felt sluggish, while another VM ran effortlessly.

The OpSource Cloud experience: What's good
The OpSource cloud is fairly intuitive to use, OpSource users can import their own images, and overall the performance is acceptable. Establishing a VPN connection (via the Cisco-based solution) is very simple and worked flawlessly every time it was tested.

The OpSource Cloud experience: What's bad
The UI could use a "Tasks" area that shows pending, queued, active and completed tasks. When a user creates a VM, for example, they are clueless as to the level of progress. After 10-15 minutes, the VM shows up under "Servers," but I wasn't sure that it took properly the first time so I unnecessarily created a second. After that, I checked the logs to make sure my "create" task was working properly.
The user (if they had access) could certainly check the log to verify that the "create" task was executed, but right now there is no way to check and see how much longer it will take to complete. Finally, I occasionally received several "there has been a problem communicating with the OpSource cloud" messages when performing random tasks from within the UI.

How OpSource can improve its cloud experience
Other than what's noted in "the bad" section above, a few other changes would be nice.
First off, having the ability to hide the "VMware Tools" icon so that the underlying platform is less obvious to the end user. Along the same lines, the option to make it less obvious as to which version of the VMware hypervisor the OpSource cloud is using. Savvy customers will note the dated version of VMware tools.
It would also be beneficial to have a dashboard, similar to Vizioncore's vFoglight, to monitor all of a customer's VM in the OpSource cloud. This could certainly be a cost-based option, but if I was to move a large portion of my environment to the OpSource cloud, I would want a dashboard to monitor the health of my environment without having to tap into application programming interfaces (APIs) or other measures.
The argument could be made that an admin would monitor his OpSource virtual machines just like any other server in the environment; however, if this environment was on-premise in my own data center, I'd have vCenter or System Center to monitor my environment at a bird's eye level.

Finally, it would be great if, during a "delete" action on a VM, it was obvious that the underlying storage was zeroed out. Just because the VM's disk(s) have been deleted, it doesn't mean that the data is completely removed from the (assumedly) EMC or HP storage array(s). While the OpSource cloud meets a handful of industry compliance guidelines, it would still be nice to see and know that the underlying disks on the storage array(s) were overwritten with zeroes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jason Langone heads virtualization, cloud computing and storage for MicroTech, a service-disabled, veteran-owned and 8(a) small business. Langone won the VMware Vanguard Award in 2007 and has architected some of the largest virtualization and cloud computing implementations to date.

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Meraki Webinar: 5 Success Factors for Upgrading Your Wireless ...

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Meraki Webinar:
5 Success Factors for Upgrading to 802.11n

Thursday, September 2 11:00 am PDT

Deploying and maintaining a wireless network need not be a challenge. During this webinar, we will explore how advancements in radio technologies, wireless management, and network automation have enabled small, leveraged IT staffs to deploy wireless, and meet employee's needs for bandwidth and mobility.

Join us as we examine the components of successful wireless deployments:

Radio technologies, including 802.11n
Safe, isolated Internet access for guests
Secure LAN access for employees with WPA2
Centralized management and remote administration
Simple, cost-effective scalability

Sign Up for the Webinar here - https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/745260216

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Managing and securing iOS 4 devices at work | Phones | iPhone Central | Macworld

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Apple’s iPhone has always had something of an image problem in the workplace, which isn’t surprising given that Apple has always marketed its smartphone more to consumers than to the business world.

In fact, when the iPhone debuted in 2007, there was no way to put third-party apps on one without jailbreaking the device, it didn’t support 3G data networks, it didn’t integrate with Microsoft’s Exchange, and you had to use iTunes to activate it initially and back up or sync data later on. Plus, there were security concerns, since there was no way to require a passcode, encrypt business data or remotely wipe an iPhone if it was lost or stolen.

A lot has changed for the iPhone, its operating system and the smartphone industry as a whole in three years. For people who want to use the iPhone at work and the IT departments that support them, the changes have been good. In fact, some of the major updates in each new iteration of the iPhone operating system (now called iOS) were the ones that made it easier to manage and secure Apple’s mobile platform.

With each passing summer, Apple has polished the business and enterprise features of iOS. It has added Exchange support, support for remote wipe, security and configuration policies (either through Exchange or with configuration profiles that can be loaded onto each device), VPN options and encryption—both whole-device encryption on the iPhone 3GS and targeted app data encryption in iOS 4.

While each of the changes was an improvement, it wasn’t until this year’s arrival of iOS 4—and the iPhone 4 itself—in June that Apple included a new mobile device management (MDM) service that companies could use. As a result, businesses finally got something sorely needed for enterprise iPhone adoption to make sense: the ability to more easily deploy, manage and monitor iPhones used by employees — a capability that has long made Research In Motion’s BlackBerry one of the most trusted mobile platforms.

Note: Although iOS 4 has been rolled out for the iPhone, the iPad won’t get the operating system upgrade until this fall.

Third-party vendors are part of the equation

One surprising thing about how Apple rolled out MDM is that the company largely left implementing it via a server up to other companies. Considering Apple’s penchant for secrecy about upcoming products and its tight control over the App Store, this move seemed out of character. Most people, myself included, figured Apple would offer a robust over-the-air device management solution. And we expected Apple to take a page from RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server and ship something as part of its own Mac OS X Server platform. (That could still happen in the next major OS X Server release.)

Whether or not Apple comes out with its own management server, there are advantages for companies looking to support iOS devices in a secure and managed way. The most obvious one is competition. With seven different options either already on the market or slated to be available by year’s end, companies can choose the one that works best for them. Although many of the core management features of iOS 4 and the MDM service offered by each vendor are essentially the same, there’s still plenty of differentiation among them.

In some cases, the main difference may simply be the management interface. Or it can mean different levels of integration with other technologies such as Active Directory. Other variables run the gamut from the type and format of reports about mobile device use to system requirements (one option is completely Mac-based), cost, existing relationships with providers and the number of non-iOS platforms each can manage.

Standardizing on a mobile platform is tough

Having a standard computing platform is a relatively simple task for most businesses, partly because there’s a limited set of choices: some variation of Windows or Mac OS X. (Yes, Linux and Unix are options, but they typically aren’t chosen for people outside of IT.)

Getting hardware is also easy, since most purchases are made in bulk and typically from a single vendor. If you’re a Mac shop, you’re buying Apple hardware; if you opt for Windows, hardware choices are plentiful.
That kind of standardization doesn’t work as well for smartphones and tablets. Even if your company pays for a smartphone for each employee, IT shops are still apt to encounter problems. Being tied to a single carrier may not be a good choice for all workplaces; different phone models may sport different features (and potentially different management capabilities); phones might only run certain versions of operating systems or offer different sets of bundled or available apps; and there may be varying levels of integration with other systems like VPN, mail servers and intranets.

When workers bring their personal devices to work—as more of us are doing these days—there’s even more potential for problems. IT shops may not even know what devices employees are using, or for what purpose—to say nothing about how secure they are.

A few years ago, companies could afford to buy mobile hardware for their employees. That’s no longer true, and many organizations are embracing the concept of bring-your-own-hardware-to-work. That saves a lot of money, since there’s no hardware to buy and no monthly cell phone bill (for the company). But then you have to manage and secure those devices—or try to dictate what your workers use. (Good luck with that one.)
The most important advantage to Apple’s approach to MDM is that all but one of the third-party companies that have announced or released management servers offer support for platforms beyond iOS. Two of them, Absolute Manage and AirWatch, offer management capabilities for devices other than smartphones or tablets.
Apple would be hard-pressed to develop its own such multiplatform system, as would any smartphone manufacturer. Of course, the specific mix of supported platforms varies with each product, as does the extent of supported features. But that’s the advantage of competition: You should be able to get the one that best meets corporate needs.

Understanding configuration profiles in iOS

A central component to managing mobile devices involves what Apple calls configuration profiles. These are XML lists of different configuration features and optional restrictions that automatically configure an iOS device.

A single configuration file can contain all of the available settings for an iPhone—complete with user credentials for various network resources—or it may contain just a single value that’s not user-specific, such as the details for accessing your mail server, VPN or wireless network. If you put in a server or network-related configuration without specific user credentials, the user will be asked to authenticate the first time they access the resource.

You can assign as many separate granular profiles as you like to any or all phones and they’ll all be enforced. This is helpful if you need to assign configuration data based on job function or department.
The most important features you can set using configuration profiles involve security: requiring a passcode, setting passcode restrictions and forcing employees to use long and complex passcodes. You can also specify how quickly a device locks when not in use and how many failed attempts to unlock it with a passcode are allowed before the device automatically wipes data.

Another security-related option allows you to disable an iPhone’s built-in camera(s). Since it is common for employers to ban camera-enabled devices to avoid sensitive information from leaking, this is an important option in many organizations.
Beyond the security options, there are a number of ways to customize an iOS device for use with your company’s network and resources. You can preconfigure access to Wi-Fi networks, VPN and e-mail servers. You can also pre-populate bookmarks for the mobile Safari browser to ensure that users can easily access internal (or external) Web-based resources. You can even specify Web pages or Web apps to appear as icons on a devices home screen for easier access.

In short, you can do a lot with configuration files to lock down an iPhone.

For more details about configuration profiles, check out Apple’s documentation of the iPhone Configuration Utility. This is the free tool (available for Mac and Windows) that Apple developed for creating and testing configuration profiles. Apple also offers information about various management and deployment scenarios as well as overviews for iOS 4 business integration.

In addition to setting configurations through profiles, the MDM service allows you to query any managed device for more than 20 different pieces of data (including device- and carrier-specific details, as well as usage and verification that security policies are being enforced).

Beyond setting configuration profiles and querying devices, the MDM service allows you to take certain actions on managed devices. You can, for instance, force the device to lock and/or wipe all data. And you can temporarily remove a passcode (in case a remote user has forgotten it). If a passcode is required, the user will be required to create a new one.

You can also install or update configuration profiles as well as installed apps and enterprise application provisioning profiles and in-house apps. All this can be done in the background without user intervention, allowing you to make sure that software, configuration and security policies are in place.
(See below for a full list of the available management and monitoring capabilities of iOS 4.)

Enrolling iOS devices for management

Apple made the process of setting up device management pretty simple using SCEP. A user is instructed to visit a secure Web site and authenticate with his or her user account (typically an Active Directory account or some other LDAP-based directory service). This allows the iPhone to generate a certificate enrollment request and then an identity certificate for the device.

Using that identity certificate and the user’s credentials to establish a secure connection, the device then processes the list of assigned configurations and presents them to the user. When the user agrees to the configurations, the device will download and install the related profiles and can be fully managed.

Management server options

Now that we’ve covered the what and the how of enterprise management, here’s the list of vendors and the expected ship dates for their products:

Absolute Manage: Expected availability in the third quarter of this year.
Afaria by Sybase: iOS 4 beta program now in progress, with availability also expected in the third quarter.
AirWatch: Availability listed as summer 2010.
Good for Enterprise: Now available.
MobileIron: Now available, and offering discounts to existing Good customers.
Tangoe Mobile Device Manager: Now available.
Tarmac by Equinux: Now available.

Note: Equinux is known for media and networking tools for Mac OS X and iOS. Tarmac is its first step into the realm of device management and is an iOS-specific solution. It lists a Mac as part of its system requirements, and overall it might be better for small and midsize organizations — particularly those that have a strong Apple presence.

Management and monitoring options for iOS devices

When building configurations, you can specify details about the following: Exchange or POP/IMAP mail servers; VPN configurations; Wi-Fi networks (including hidden networks and networks requiring a passcode or radius authentication); LDAP directories for contacts, access to a CalDAV and/or CardDAV server, public or private calendars that support iCal (.ics) subscriptions; carrier (APN) settings; digital certificates; and Web clips.
You can also mandate a variety of security policies, such as requiring an unlock passcode; allowing a simple passcode or requiring an alphanumeric passcode with a special characters; setting how long a passcode can be used; specifying the length of time before automatic screen locking takes place; setting the number of failed passcode attempts allowed before the device is wiped automatically; requiring that the backup created when syncing to iTunes be encrypted; and indicating whether users can remove configuration profiles.
When it comes to locking down an iOS device, you can restrict access to the following: app installation, the camera, screen captures, automatic mail sync while roaming, voice dialing while the device is locked, in-app purchases, items tagged by iTunes as explicit and access to the security settings for the mobile Safari browser. You can also keep users from launching Safari, YouTube, the iTunes Store and the App Store.
The goal is simple: You want to set as many parameters as needed to ensure that the device is as locked down as your company needs.

In addition to device management, MDM is a service that relies on Apple’s push notification system to receive queries and instructions from a management server to interact with any iOS 4 device in the background. That it runs as an always-on background process is the reason third-party vendors couldn’t create such a solution on their own.

You can build queries for a single device or multiple devices that encompass the following areas: unique device identifier (a value unique to each iOS device); the device name; iOS version; model name and hardware version; serial number; total storage capacity and available free space; IMEI number; the modem firmware version; SIM card ICCID; MAC addresses for both the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth receivers; current carrier (home carrier or roaming); the carrier identified by the installed SIM card as the primary carrier; the version of the carrier settings (APN) data; phone number; whether data roaming is allowed; the installed profiles; installed security certificates and their expiration dates; enforced restrictions; hardware encryption capability; whether a passcode is set; installed applications (including app identifier, name, version, and size); and any application provisioning profiles and their expiration dates—something that’s required for internal corporate iPhone apps distributed outside of the App Store.

Some final thoughts

It’s still unclear whether iOS 4 will truly end the belief that the iPhone (and iPad) platform is more about personal entertainment than workplace functionality. It’s also hard to know for now which smartphone and tablet platforms will have the staying power to dominate the market — though I wouldn’t bet against Apple. For now, it seems clear that workers and businesses will have a wide variety of choices over the next few years, with Apple being just one of many players trying to get their feet in the enterprise door.

Being able to effectively support and manage multiple platforms is crucial for any organization that wants an effective mobile strategy. For iOS 4 devices, and others, these tools offer ways to make the coming diversification easier to manage and secure. And while they certainly don’t ensure that Apple’s devices will be welcomed by IT shops, they do make them increasingly viable options for companies in the years ahead.

[Ryan Faas is a freelance writer and technology consultant specializing in Mac and multiplatform network issues. He has been a Computerworld columnist since 2003 and is a frequent contributor to Peachpit.com. Ryan was also the co-author of O’Reilly’s Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration.]

http://www.macworld.com/article/153316/2010/08/ios4_devices_workplace.html?lsrc=rss_weblogs_iphonecentral

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Remington College Deploys WiFi with Cloud-Based Control -- Campus ...

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Remington College, a confederation of private career colleges, has deployed campus wireless networks that are managed centrally through a cloud-based service. The 19 schools in 10 states have chosen Meraki to supply 802.11n WiFi gear to extend wireless access to previously uncovered areas. The campuses have a total of about 9,000 students and 1,400 staff.

The previous setup included a multitude of vendors' access points. As the students' consumption of digital content increased, the strain on the network--and the college's IT staff--grew. Remington wanted to standardize on a wireless platform that could be managed centrally from its headquarters and that would deliver a better user experience.

After an evaluation of systems from various vendors, Meraki was chosen. The expansion with Meraki didn't require deployment of a wireless controller at each location, according to the college. Meraki's access points can be managed over the Web by the vendor's Cloud Controller, a Web-based network management console.
"I would definitely recommend Meraki and have already referred it to other school groups who would benefit from this offering," said CIO Chuck Farraj. "We are big fans of the Cloud Controller, and Meraki has created the most user-friendly dashboard we've seen. It's a great product and a very ingenious way to approach enterprise wireless."

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2010/08/09/Remington-College-Deploys-WiFi-with-Cloud-Based-Control.aspx&ct=ga&cad=:s7:f1:v0:d2:i1:lt:e0:p0:t1281486641:&cd=gpZ13GojqbE&usg=AFQjCNE1CFyM7x2TdiDxcQKez7cvMLR-wA

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Expand Networks Joins The HP AllianceONE Program

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Expand Networks, (www.expand.com) the leader in WAN optimization for branch office consolidation and virtualization, today announced that it has joined the HP AllianceONE partner program, gaining network specialisation partner status.

The HP AllianceONE program provides hardware and software vendors, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and systems integrators the tools and resources they need to more effectively address client needs. Expand Networks will leverage HP AllianceONE solutions, tools and resources to help clients speed time to application deployment, optimize infrastructure capacity, reduce power consumption and free resources to focus on innovation that drives business growth.

Adam Davison, VP corporate sales & marketing at Expand Networks, comments, “Our approach to WAN optimization is complementary to the strategic networking investments of enterprises today, acting as a key technology enabler to IT initiatives such as server based computing and VDI. We are excited to become an HP AllianceONE partner. The collaborative program provides real market benefits as WAN optimization increasingly becomes a key piece of the networking puzzle.”

“HP partners such as Expand Networks are looking for ways to increase efficiency, focus on their business, and deliver excellent customer service,” said Robin Hensley, director, Solution and Strategic Alliances, HP. ”By leveraging the solutions, tools, services and expertise offered through AllianceONE, Expand can focus on the continued support of its clients while growing its business at the same time.”

As part of the HP AllianceONE partner program, Expand’s integrated technology, flexibly delivered as a Virtual Accelerator (VACC), Accelerator appliance (ACC) or as mobile client software (MACC), plus its comprehensive management platform ExpandView, will add significant value to WAN investments across all network environments.

The HP AllianceONE partner program offers a solid framework for collaboration by integrating servers, storage, networking, security, power & cooling and services. As a member of the AllianceONE program, Expand Networks can significantly extend market reach and improve selling success.

http://expand.com/news-events/release.aspx?pressID=e7a9502e-d6c0-4a9c-a4cc-2feb1740e46b

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802.11n Technology sponsored by Meraki

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

The 802.11n draft 2.0 standard offers several technical benefits over previous technology generations, which result in improved throughput to 802.11n-based clients, as well as greater reliability for legacy 802.11a/b/g clients.

802.11n is much more than just a new radio for 802.11. In addition to providing higher bit rates (as was done in 802.11a, b, and g), 802.11n makes dramatic changes to the basic frame format that is used by 802.11 devices to communicate with each other. This section will describe the changes incorporated in 802.11n, including MIMO, radio enhancements, and MAC enhancements.

Environmental characteristics and network density plays a significant role in the ultimate performance of a network. In well designed networks, each access point can serve over 130Mbps of TCP throughput to clients using 802.11n technology, and multiple radios can operate simultaneously to provide several gigabits of throughput.

http://searchstorage.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1281124703_555.html?asrc=RSS_BP_KABPMANAGEIT

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A New Mobile Operating System for IT

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Had a very interesting conversation this week with a forward-thinking IT department. They are trying to address the mobile client fragmentation and consumerization problem head on. They know the demand they are seeing from users will only increase and they know unnatural restrictions on that demand will only inhibit innovation and the growth of the business.

Their strategy is to have a single central management platform that operates across client OS and apps, and then push the decisions and responsibilities for the applications themselves to the lines of business. In other words, set the standards, enforce the policies, but get out of the way of the applications. So an agnostic core that supports a diverse and evolving set of user experiences.

It struck me that the central management platform actually becomes IT’s mobile “operating system”. If we assume that user devices will continue to be spread across multiple client operating systems (e.g. BlackBerry, iOS, Android, Windows variants, Symbian), the only way for IT to truly scale is to reduce the complexity IT itself faces at the core. Users get to use what they need, lines of business get to deploy what they want, and IT doesn’t get fragmented beyond repair.

95% of the IT teams I talk to these days believe multi-OS is the future. So the notion that multi-OS management is required is broadly accepted. However, some look to it as a band-aid to solve the immediate problem of the CEO buying a cool new unsupported device. What it needs to be, however, is a strategic foundation to ensure IT efficiency and responsiveness in the smartphone era.

http://mobileiron.com/blog/2010/08/management-as-operating-system/

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OpSource Named Top Cloud and Infrastructure Company on the ...

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Dobson) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:00:00 +0000

OpSource, Inc., the leader in enterprise cloud and managed hosting, today announced that OpSource has been named the top cloud and infrastructure company on the AlwaysOn Global 250 list.

The companies selected for the AlwaysOn Global 250 represent the top private companies that are demonstrating significant market traction and pursuing game-changing technology. The list is selected by AlwaysOn editors in collaboration with partners at Manatt, Morgan Stanley, the Blackstone Group, KPMG, Silicon Valley Bank, Sonnenschein, and Bridge Bank, as well as industry experts across the globe. Judges recognize honorees based on market opportunity, nature of innovation, media buzz and awareness, commercialization and ability to create stakeholder value.

http://www.sourcews.com/opsource-named-top-cloud-infrastructure

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Cloud Distribution - PRODUCT NEWS

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Third-party vendors are part of the equation

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Some final thoughts

Remington College Deploys WiFi with Cloud-Based Control -- Campus ...

Expand Networks Joins The HP AllianceONE Program

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Meraki Webinar:
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