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Does Mojo have the mojo to change WLAN architecture?
Bloggers explore Mojo Networks' efforts to disrupt the delivery of WLAN architecture, DevTest in clouds and new directions in network management.
Wireless access point vendors make a 70% margin on every AP sold by the WLAN architecture industry, a profit blogger Lee Badman shares in his analysis of a Mojo Networks' presentation at a recent Mobility Field Day in San Jose, Calif. Mojo, Badman wrote, is attempting to disrupt the way WLAN architecture is delivered through a strategy that combines commodity-priced APs, switches and security appliances, all of which are cloud-managed in an Open Source framework.
Badman praised Mojo CEO Rick Wilmer for his approach, which he believes will help users avoid the pitfalls of being trapped by limited feature sets offered by individual WLAN architecture vendors.
"Cloud management, software-defined everything, and open hardware standards CAN replace bloated, proprietary systems as shown in different examples made by Wilmer's team in presentations that came after his," Badman said in Wirednot. "But just as significant is Mojo's idea of a new business model that flies in the face of convention, and could capitalize on the success of the Open Compute project (OCP) in building white box data center components as that model stretches into wireless access," he added.
Dig deeper into Badman's thoughts on the WLAN industry, and what Mojo is trying to do.
Cloud testing shifts toward operations
Mark Peters, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Mass., sees testing -- in addition to data protection and archiving -- as one of the most popular uses for public cloud. Public cloud offers a safe sandbox, shielding production data from errors in testing while offering ample scale or speed to run experiments. According to Peters, the flexibility of modern clouds is enabling IT teams to develop and test operational infrastructures in the cloud as well.
This new approach grants IT teams the flexibility to try out a variety of different infrastructure platforms with different hardware, hypervisors or operating systems. After optimizing in the cloud, it is easier for teams to build data centers to specification. "Just as with the DevTest of apps, the DevTest of ops can help deliver better IT outcomes (which means less risk and more certainty of achieving whatever your target is) to your organization," Peters added.
Read more of Peters' thoughts on testing in the cloud.
IoT drives the evolution of network management
Shamus McGillicuddy, an analyst at Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colo., said IoT challenges are forcing network managers to update their network monitoring and management systems. EMA research suggests that existing network monitoring tools and practices are inadequate in handling IoT. Among 100 survey respondents, 52% said that IoT worsened blind spots. Scalability was the most cited problem, identified by 26%, while others noted high rates of change and a lack of granularity in monitoring.
In response, EMA found that enterprises are modifying their existing tools to give them the data they need. In other cases, teams upgrade licenses for monitoring tools, install network visibility controllers or improve granularity of monitoring. The survey also found that 68% of network teams were expanding their tools to manage IoT. "IoT devices present another challenge to network operations, because network teams often take ownership of certain elements of the IoT device lifecycle. ... Many network managers will find that their tools do not natively support IoT devices. They will have to modify the tools themselves or ask their vendors to customize the tools," McGillicuddy said.
Explore more of McGillicuddy's thoughts on network management for IoT.
