Features, Products, Services... The Differences According to Aerohive

I recently visited Aerohive's home turf as one of the delegates at Wireless Field Day 5. It was wonderful getting to meet, in person, many Bees I frequently interact with via email and social media.

My own history with Aerohive is built largely on covering their evolution from the early days, writing about them professionally in Network Computing Magazine. As with other vendors, sometimes Aerohive gets the spotlight and sometimes they get compared against when analyzing what competitors are up to. I have my own small Aerohive environment, and have first hand familiarity (not mastery, mind you) with Hive Manager and a couple of AP models.

Aerohive has been a major player in minor-but-growing cloud-managed wireless network space that includes Meraki (Cisco), AirTight Networks, and PowerCloud. 

Ah, cloud-managed networking. I've become a fan where I use it (and I do use it in a number of sites). I like that one of the running campaign themes of cloud-based networking in general is reduced hardware counts with no convoluted licensing schemes. 

Though Aerohive has done a good job with pushing the value of "here's a new feature, and you'll just get it with your next Hive Manager upgrade at no additional cost!" message to customers, I was taken a wee bit aback during the Field Day briefings on Aerohive's IDManager and Client Management services because they were called "new products" that require licensing.

Both offerings will no doubt be welcomed by existing Aerohive customers, and are easily marketed at prospective customers looking for a robust, all inclusive solution. My own little private shock at the licensing requirement doesn't detract from my overall opinion on Aerohive, and after thinking about it , I know where the surprise comes from: we've gotten so used to rich feature sets being "free" that we instinctively expect the gratis model to apply to any and all "features" Aerohive develops. Which really isn't fair to Aerohive, but is how we've been conditioned on the customer end.

I wont pretend to understand why Aerohive has "given" so many enterprise-grade services away to date that others license for, but draws the line at IDManager and Client Management. Nor do I care enough to get hung up on it, as other vendors seem to be licensing their Onboarding services as well after hearing their briefings. 

For those keeping score at home, here's a breakdown of some of what is included with Aerohive's Cloud Manager and licensed APs under the heading of "it's just in there":

• Spectrum analysis
• Application visibility and control
• Statefull firewall
• QoS
• VPN
• Partner MDM hooks
• Planner software(free to non-Aerohive customers too)
• Bonjour gateway software (also free to non-Aerohive customers)

And what you have to license seperately:

• Client Management (license blocks of 100)
• IDManager (tiered licensing, starting at 250 guests)
• StudentManager (blocks of 1000)

 

 

 

What I Hope To Get From Wireless Field Day 5

Being selected as a delegate to a Tech Field Day is a bit like winning a Golden Ticket to Wonkaland for us tech types (instead of chocolate, there is a lot of wireless fodder to enjoy). I'm pleased as can be to be going back for my second Wireless Field Day event, having attended WFD4 and soon, WFD5.

Given the Silicon Valley's prominence in the IT world, a trip there is something akin to a pilgrimage for those of us too far away (by both distance and circumstance) to get there very often. And that touches on my first goal for Wireless Field Day 5: simply being immersed in the tech-rich backdrop of the San Jose area. I'm not a tremendously spiritual person, but there is a powerful vibe afoot just under the surface "out there", and it bubbles up time and again throughout the few magic days that are Field Day.

The corny stuff aside, here's some of what what I hope to get out of my time at WFD5:

• Reconnecting with organizer Stephen Foskett and my fellow delegates. Most of the group was at WFD4, but there will be three new-to-me faces among the delegates, as well as Stephen's expanded staff. These folks are sharp, down to earth, a pleasure to do the event with, and extremely deep in wireless networking knowledge. This alone makes the trip worth it.


• In general, I'm looking forward to all of the companies that are presenting to give us a glimpse behind the curtain at what they are about to release, what they are thinking on a number of fronts, and what they want to know from us, the delegates. Expected hot topics: 802.11ac, analytics of various sorts, new tools and optimization methods.


• Speaking of tools and optimization, 7Signal is sure to be a delegate favorite. I'm guessing we've all seen at least snippets of their case studies and what they recommend to make good WLANs even better. I hope to hear clarity on this topic, and to get a sense of whether 7Signal gear is more affordable than it seems and to hear about optimization tweaks that are real-world applicable.


• With Meru Networks in the lineup, I'm guessing I'm not the only delegate hoping to walk away with a better understanding of their "secret sauce" for single-channel virtual cells, and whether there is more than just bluster to their occasional hubris (as I've covered in my Network Computing column). To a certain degree, the same goal applies to Xirrus- I've covered them a number of times but never quite got totally comfortable with the array thing. But I keep an open mind...


• For Aerohive Networks, I'm both looking forward to updates and just as much to meeting the likes of Andrew von Nagy (perhaps the most approachable and willing-to-share senior tech guy from any vendor) and his homies. Aerohive just seems to have a different culture, and it'll be nice to spend time in it for a couple of hours. (my latest Network Computing piece on Aerohive is here).


• AirTight Networks will be interesting because they are "new", at least as a wireless access player, in a very competitive market. I have a Network Computing piece on AirTight now running, and also recommend this piece by Man-of-Action and  fellow Field Day Vet Matthew Norwood.  Hearing their story in person will be pretty neat.


• MetaGeek, WildPackets, and FlukeNetworks are all fairly significant players in my wireless world for tools. I've been a MetGeek fan from the days of the original WiSpy, and also frequently use EyePA and InSSIDer for Office (best blog on this one from another fellow delegate, Sam Clements). I'm looking forward to hearing any new announcements from the tools folks (gotta be something in this mix about 11ac) and maybe picking up a tip or two about how to better use the products I already have.


• Finally, Motorola always stokes my interest because they usually have a somewhat unique story and understated approach versus the "aggressive" marketing of other industry players. I'm a fan of many Moto business units (as a radio and Android guy, that's a given), and caught up with the WLAN folks at Interop in Vegas just a couple of months ago to hear their opening 11ac story. I gotta feeling they'll have something new for us.

It'll be a busy week at Wireless Field Day, and my eyes and ears will be open. Standby for updates.

Why is Aerohive the Only WLAN Vendor On Twitter?

That's right- I don't see any other WLAN vendors on Twitter.

Like really "on" Twitter.

Sure, I see lot's of other WLAN vendors with a Twitter presence. I follow as many as I can. But it's all so much marketing and promotion of webinars and other droll foofah. Not that these communications don't have a place, but there should be so much more... like what Aerohive does.

No, this isn't an Aeorohive suck-up session. They have innovative product and a fresh story that stands for itself. But what also sets Aerohive apart is how their senior tech folks interact  with us geeks on Twitter, in a way that is not only welcome but also sorely needed in a wireless world that grows ever more hyper-complex.

When folks with titles like Chief Wi-Fi Architect, Senior Wi-Fi Architect, and Director of Product management routinely engage customers and non-customers alike on social media, the information exchange is dynamite. This is what all vendors need to be doing. Aerohive has either purposefully or without realizing it empowered their wireless power people to get the message of their solutions out as vigorously as the marketing team does- but even better, they are providing guidance and facilitating discussion on topics that customers of ALL vendors have a stake in. In other words, Folks like Devin, Andrew, and Matthew are also upstanding citizens in a fairly small wireless community, and we all benefit from it.

As we all march towards 802.11ac, more complicated feature sets, unification of everything under the wireless banner, and an immersion in the Sea of Mobility, we need more Twitter-style interactions from vendors' tech folks. Sure, it's risky letting non-marketing employees talk directly to customers and potential customers. But to those of us that read the whitepapers, do the webinars, and visit the vendor booth at the tech shows yet still want more engagement on topics that shape our thoughts and strategies, the more informal interactions we have with the tech folks are invaluable. Sometimes it's technical nuts and bolts stuff, sometimes it's theoretical or contemplative, and sometimes it's silly. But the mutual shaping of perspectives is valuable on many levels.

Come on, wireless vendors, you all have some amazing minds behind closed doors. That's evidenced by the insanely cool products and features that you put out. At the same time, we can't typically reach them- and they can't reach us. It's not your model. You give us division names for Twitter handles like "xxx mobility" and "yyy solutions"... fine, they have value. But we also want to interact with named people on occasion. Like Devin, Andrew, and Matthew. People who not only represent their employers well, but who are passionate about wireless networking and want to share that passion with others.

To balance the risk of letting your tech folks off the reservation a bit,,, you'd get better reads on what matters to those who use and manage wireless networks, we'd better understand why you chose some of your product decisions and feature sets, and powerful relationships at personal levels would get built among WLAN professionals. Yeah, it might feel weird in the beginning, but if Aerohive can pull it off (and quite nicely, I might add), so can you.

So... When Do You Jump In On 11ac? Like Really?

The blogosphere is awash with speculation on how 802.11ac is going to transform the way we use wireless, and what the new WLAN will do for productivity. It's great stuff, and needs to be talked up. We see early releases of actual 11ac draft product, great whitepapers from the Big Guns, and even better blogs on 11ac from some of the best wireless minds in the industry. If you're not getting a working knowledge of 11ac by now, it's not for lack of available information.

Never has WiFi been more complex, more promising, and more confusing. I don't mean technically confusing; if you're a wireless professional, you'll wrap  your head around the technical side of 802.11ac. Some of my own frequent talking points on 11ac:

• yeah, the standard promises up to 6.9 Gbps data rates. But 11n also promises up to 600, and we'll never see it. Real initial 11ac offerings are still going to be measured at speeds slightly better or even the same as 11n's best


• the 5 GHz-only thing is great for everyone, and will help de-congest the ugly 2.4 GHz band


• early client devices have to be watched- a 3x3 11ac Macbook pro will run circles around a TP-Link 1x1 USB adapter, but they both "are" 11ac. Real client throughputs on 11ac are going to be all over the place


• the Wave 1/Wave 2 thing is really gonna be a weird one for people who have to plan when to jump in, and killer features like Multi-User-MIMO don't materialize until the second wave


• Regardless of how 11ac plays out in the trenches, Ethernet needs to start being more aggressively marginalized. Limited budgets can't support competing access technologies, and mobility will become more of  trump factor when dollars get spent

This brings me back to my question- When do different organizations start migrating to 11ac? This is the part that is confusing.

Talking with Cisco and Aerohive back a few months, the topic of life-cycle came up in relation to 11ac. If you have old gear and have to upgrade, first-wave 11ac might make sense in that you can skip right past 11n. But if you are like me, and have a fairly recent 11n build-out and no real performance pain points, it's just not as easy of a paradigm. Stop-gaps like Cisco's 3600 AP 11ac radio module help bridge the technological generation gap between 11n and 11ac deployments, but at an estimated $500 a pop list price, may not be worth the cost. Upgrading twice to 11ac for the first and second waves is a thorny proposition.

For small environments, lesser AP counts do remove some of the complication. But when you have hundreds or thousands of access points, you can't help but scratch your head when it comes to thoughts of moving to 11ac.

Personally, I am hoping to see a first-wave AP emerge that is somehow upgradeable to a full-fledged second-waver. But I'm also aware of the complexity of putting these things together, and building a 4x4 AP that can "expand" to the likes of 8 streams isn't likely. Also, close monitoring of client device types in use (we're a huge BYOD environment) will be a must while we watch how new 11ac devices trickle in.

For now then, I guess it's still a game of watching and waiting. Hopefully soon we'll see announcements from the WLAN makers that somehow help those of us driving really big WLANs to see a sensible path forward that doesn't include a "buy THIS 11ac AP today, then buy THAT 11ac next year" recommendation.

Location Services Are Heating Up

It seems like you can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting an announcement about some new location service or analytics application. This is a growth space, that is obvious. Whether locating wireless client devices on a WLAN with greater accuracy as an end to the means, or taking it up a notch and building a full-blown suite of location-based services, a lot of names are in the game. Let's take a sniff at a handful of examples in a space I have been watching for years.

Nearbuy Systems promises "A Practical Way to Deliver on the Omnichannel Shopping Experience Today". Headed up by CEO Bryan Wargo (a long-time professional acquaintance of mine, and sweetheart of a guy), Nearbuy has made it into my Network Computing Blog a few times since their formation. Nearbuy leverages your wireless network to work it's magic.

Aerohive Networks recently formed a partnership with Euclid Analytics to leverage both companies' retail customer bases. Again, the partnership was announced in my Network Computing Magazine blog column.

Canadian startup Wifarer  looks to make it big as a provider of indoor positioning services. Using a customer's own WLAN, Wifarer maps customer venues and provides a range of services (handicap routes through a venue, for example), and content-enabled benefits via their app. Pass a coffee shop, get offered a coupon- that sort of thing. Their demos are worth watching to get a flavor for their offerings, and here's Wifarer's mention in Network Computing.

Aruba Networks doesn't really tout their location tools, but Aruba's AirWave management tool has always competed well with Cisco's graphical client tracking services, and it wouldn't surprise me to hear more from the #2 WLAN company in the market on location services in the near future.

Even Google is in on it, with their no-cost-to-you Indoor Mapping Service.

I'll finish this one with Cisco Network's recent announcement regarding their Mobility Services Engine (MSE) new 7.4 code. Cisco announced details here, and at the recent Wireless Field Day 4 event. As an MSE owner (I have three in use on a very large WLAN) I have a lot to digest on this. From what I heard first-hand at Wireless Field Day, it seems that MSE 7.4 comes pretty close to doing what Wifarer promises- and Cisco claims better analytics than Euclid with MSE 7.4.Update- though I have yet to get to 7.4, I have learned that the new magic in CIsco MSE 7.4 comes from a partnership with Meridian.

There's obviously a lot to follow here- stay tuned for more, and let me know what you are digging in the WLAN location services space.