Posted on Mon, Apr 18, 2011 @ 12:44 PM
A novel approach to wireless access points has gained acclaim for Aerohive Networks, creators of the cooperative control wireless LAN (WLAN) architecture. Garnter, Inc. has positioned Aerohive and its cutting-edge technology in the coveted “Visionaries” area of the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Wireless LAN Infrastructure.
The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace.
According to Gartner, a “vendor in the Visionaries quadrant demonstrates an ability to increase features in its offering to provide a unique and differentiated approach to the market. A visionary will have contributed innovations in one or more of the key areas of WLAN technologies (e.g., convergence, security, management or operational efficiency).” Innovation is weighted highly by Gartner in evaluating a vendor's completeness of vision.
Aerohive’s Cooperative Control Enterprise Wireless LAN Architecture is based on the same architectural premise already proven in the Internet and corporate WAN, which both rely on dynamic routing protocols. According to Aerohive, this structure eliminates controllers by increasing the functionality of access points, bringing control closer to the edge of the network.
“The look and feel of controllers continues to change,” the Gartner report notes. “Since the introduction of controller-based architectures, most vendors use a separate appliance; however, the hardware has slowly been transformed (subsumed into blades or appliances), or, in some cases, has vanished.
“Although the structured network functionality still exists, the physical controller has disappeared into the cloud, virtualized into an upstream server or integrated into one or more access points. In addition to lower-priced access points, these new solutions continue to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for WLAN connectivity at the edge of the network.”
Aerohive's cooperative control WLAN access points (dubbed HiveAPs) require no network controllers or overlay networks. Instead, software in the HiveAPs enables them to self-organize into groups called Hives. Cooperative control eliminates the controller as a single point of failure, making enterprise wi-fi more reliable. It also increases performance by eliminating the data bottleneck that controllers create - especially in 802.11n networks where increased bandwidth can cause choke points at the controller.
“Being positioned in the 'Visionaries' quadrant of the Magic Quadrant is affirmation of our controller-less WLAN architecture, and is an indicator of the future of WLANs,” said David Flynn, chief executive officer for Aerohive. “Aerohive's pioneering architecture eliminates the need for WLAN controllers and facilitates cloud-enabled networking to provide customers with high-performance, highly-reliable, scalable, secure, and cost-effective wireless solutions.”
Aerohive’s architecture also seizes on the latest trend for both hardware and software developers, who see the cloud as the most effective place to manage computing infrastructure. In fact, by managing the network in the cloud, Aerohive says it can save money and provide customers with application performance that is up to 10 times better than traditional networks.
“For many enterprises that are deploying access points, wireless connectivity is mission-critical,” Gartner said in its report. “This means that site planning and support play critical roles in ensuring that WLANs are installed properly to address business issues, from capacity to transaction density, upfront, rather than waiting for a problem to occur. Overlapping coverage, dual-homed access points and mesh networking capabilities are providing multiple paths for robust communication at the edge. Proactive tools, such as network management knowledgebases, spectrum analysis and client health monitoring, are playing a larger role to ensure that the WLAN continues to perform to its optimum level once it's installed.”
Posted on Fri, Mar 25, 2011 @ 05:13 PM
As seen on Best in UC.
Earthquakes. Tornados. Floods.
When natural disasters make headlines, we’re all reminded of the inherent weaknesses that are part of our everyday technology infrastructure.
No system is ever disaster-proof. That’s why every organization should have a disaster management plan that includes specific steps to support its phone system, data system and facilities. Key among these are unified communication solutions. Without communications between employees and offices, a difficult situation can become impossible and frightening or even life-threatening. That’s why disaster recovery for your phone system should be a priority.
If the power is out for long enough, most phone systems go down. But there are steps you can take to ensure your business’ unified communications solution remains operational, even under challenging circumstances:
- Redundancy. Most phone systems claim some kind of redundancy, but not all redundancy is equal. For example, ShoreTel’s architecture provides redundancy at a much lower cost than typical UC solutions. Most phone systems require a server at each physical location. In contrast, ShoreTel needs only a switch at each location. A single extra switch (known as N+1) can serve as a backup to any switch that fails across the entire network.
- Server backup. Although ShoreTel IP phones don’t require a server to be operational for users to get a dial tone, they do rely upon a “headquarters” server for system management and advanced features. Like any other server, it should be backed up and virtualized. ShoreTel offers several options to provide this redundancy, including WMware VSphere.
- Off-site support. Some organizations need a backup server in a different location, with a WAN connection to the primary server. For ShoreTel customers, Double-Take supports both physical and virtual servers.
Posted on Thu, Feb 03, 2011 @ 11:58 AM
(as seen on BestinUC.com)
If you want to discover the latest insight from leaders in the IT space on the top concerns of IT in the healthcare industry, make sure you attend the HIMSS Healthcare webinar on Monday, February 7th at 1pm CST.
Many IT specialists are familiar with the special challenges faced when deploying technologies in healthcare facilities and in an hour-long webinar, three expert panelists will discuss:
1. How to best deal with RF interference
2. Wi-Fi deployment best practices in healthcare
3. Delivering reliable wireless performance at range at the lowest cost with the fewest access points
The webinar is free, so register now!
In the meantime be sure to try our free Aerohive wi-fi planning tool to learn more about deploying wi-fi in enterprise environments. Aerohive HiveManager enables simple RF planning and doesn't require a controller or an overlay network.
Here’s an abstract of the upcoming webinar (taken from the HIMSS website):
Healthcare is screaming for better wireless. From EMR/EHR applications to BCMA carts, wireless-enabled infusion pumps to wireless nurse call systems, telemetry and bedside monitoring to location tracking and even guest access, everyone wants wireless. The problem is, healthcare environments are among the worst places to get wireless to consistently work as advertised. RF interference, obstacles, obstructions along with a myriad of new client devices with lousy Wi-Fi implementations all amount to a big headache for IT staff. This Webinar will highlight recent technical advances that help make these problems go away. Our panel of subject matter experts with actual Wi-Fi experience will discuss their experiences and provide practical advice on topics such as streamlining deployment, delivering stronger signals with fewer APs, automatically mitigating interference and filling coverage holes without running more Ethernet cabling everywhere.
Posted on Wed, Dec 08, 2010 @ 03:06 PM
by Scott Strochak, President & CEO
When it comes to information technology in the healthcare industry, security is a top priority. HIPAA laws are continually in mind as IT directors make technological decisions and implement new solutions. Today’s technological advances, such as telehealth and the availability of mobile technology can improve healthcare, increase speed of care and patient/doctor communication and simplify processes, but the reliability and security of technology is key.
With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act came an allocation of $20 billion towards electronic medical records. Financial incentives were put in place to encourage healthcare institutions to implement electronic records.
The push for electronic medical records, coupled with an increase in the number of healthcare professionals utilizing mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, the demand for Wi-Fi has increased 60 percent since last year.
Healthcare institutions face several challenges when implementing Wi-Fi. Wireless network providers, like Aerohive Networks are working to offer solutions to challenges faced by the healthcare industry. Here are a few examples:
- Challenge: High availability – Healthcare institutions need a wireless solution that will provide service to mobile caregivers, allowing access to patient data on mobile devices. WLANs funnel data traffic through a controller, which can cause a single point of failure. To provide high availability, a network solution must provide redundancy without a single point of failure by eliminating the controller.
- Solution: The Aerohive wireless architecture APs require no network controllers. Software in Aerohive’s APs allow them to automatically discover one another as they are added or removed from the network.
- Challenge: Ensuring HIPAA confidentiality. Providing highly available, reliable wireless networking while complying with HIPAA confidentiality is crucial.
- Solution: 802.11n standards require the support of 802.11n/WPA2 encryption and authentication algorithms based on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Aerohive WLANs go beyond the 802.11 standards to automate, secure, and manage Wi-Fi networks.
With Aerohive, network management can be handled from a single workstation, in either appliance or the “cloud.” Aerohive allows healthcare institutions to cut costs on Wi-Fi by up to 75%, improve network availability, reliability and flexibility. The Aerohive solution is easily scalable with a per-AP price.
One of our customers, a management company in Oregon that owns a chain of retirement living communities, was implementing new wireless patient care services applications and were looking for a wireless LAN solution to support them. This company wanted something easy to deploy and manage across the enterprise, including 144 senior living communities.
After a year of research, our customer finally decided on Aerohive for their first location in McLane, VA, because the "controller-less" architecture allowed them to manage the entire enterprise WLAN from a single administrative interface, with robust security and throughput. All this for a fraction of the cost the competitors were offering.
We're excited about our Aerohive relationship and their push into the health care space. They make very reliable, easy to manage products with a lower TCO than most other products on the market. Hopefully we can do our little part to make healthcare more affordable by helping healthcare organizations lower than costs to do business.
We can help you determine the right Wi-Fi solution to fit your organizations needs. For more information on Aerohive, or other networking products and services, contact us.
For more information on the challenges facing healthcare institutions when it comes to wireless technology, download this TMC whitepaper.