Netgear has launched Insight Pro, a cloud-based remote monitoring and management platform that the company said will bring managed service providers more network management capabilities, as well as attractive revenue opportunities when they resell the service.
Netgear executives said Insight Pro is a Multi-tenancy platform designed for MSPs that want to manage numerous customers remotely. This is a change from the previous version of the product, called Insight, which was designed to manage the network ecosystem of only one small or medium-sized business.
The networking company, based in San Jose, Calif., introduced Netgear Insight Pro in August in North America and Asia, and it featured the product earlier this month at the CEDIA Expo conference in San Diego.
John McHugh, general manager and senior vice president for Netgear's commercial business unit, said Insight Pro can help MSPs and their customers build a better business relationship. The aim is to help those parties gain transparency, greater efficiency and control over network operations.
Remote monitoring and management reporting
Once an MSP buys a Netgear Insight Pro subscription at $15 per device, per year, and resells the subscription service, customers that sign on can see a read-only view of their network. The remote monitoring and management offering generates reports that give users details on power usage, data consumption and storage utilization, among other usage statistics that show the health and vulnerabilities that exist across the network.
"Insight will detect a hardware failure, bandwidth or loading issues and configuration problems," McHugh said. "It will also help the MSP determine what the 'peak' loading is, which is critical to provide customers with guidance on where they might need additional capacity either now or in the future."
Customers don't want to commit to a cloud model and then get stuck in an arrangement that's unaffordable.
John McHughgeneral manager and senior vice president for Netgear's commercial business unit
To guard against network slowdowns, mitigate the impact of outages and protect the network against security breaches, Netgear Insight Pro is supported by a suite of Netgear products that include apps, firmware, wireless LANs, storage devices, network security tools and switches that run on Amazon Web Services' cloud computing platforms.
As the cloud subscription model continues to reduce the need for value-added resellers to install hardware at customer sites, the Insight Pro product will help VARs transition to a service provider business, according to McHugh. He said many VARs are intimidated by the idea of managing a customer's network on a 24/7 basis under a subscription model.
"In the case of a VAR who is becoming an IT service provider, they don't have to purchase any equipment, and they don't have to stand up a 24-by-7 data center or call centers to manage their customer's network. All the notifications and alerts go straight to their phone," McHugh said.
Netgear Insight Pro: Toggling the cloud
Another feature of the remote monitoring and management product: MSPs using Insight Pro can switch access to the cloud on or off. Once an MSP has authenticated itself and started a subscription, McHugh said, the MSP will have the option to choose whether it wants to manage a customer's network locally or manage it through the cloud.
"Customers don't want to commit to a cloud model and then get stuck in an arrangement that's unaffordable," McHugh said. "Partners and their customers demand that they have this flexibility as they work through their concerns over user experience and the cost of operations. Customers of Insight Pro only pay for what they use."
