Recently, I had the chance to speak with Bruce Miller, the VP of Marketing for Xirrus, a provider of high-performance wireless networks. I asked Bruce to give his thoughts on the growing challenge of BYOD, and to also give me more background on their EasyPass suite and how it helps.
VMblog: First, can you give VMblog readers a little background on Xirrus?
Bruce Miller: Xirrus is a leading provider of
high-performance Wi-Fi networks. Xirrus' Wi-Fi solutions perform under the most
demanding circumstances, offering consistent "wired-like" performance with
superior coverage and security. Xirrus delivers innovative Wi-Fi solutions that
solve the challenges with ever growing, ever-evolving Wi-Fi demands. Xirrus' unique architecture scales to quadruple the
number of users and more compared to traditional solutions, without performance
impact or the need for infrastructure upgrades. It's
designed to evolve with the changes in Wi-Fi technology and standards so you
won't need to replace your Xirrus network for years. Xirrus solutions are
deployed in tens of thousands of networks worldwide, and we are proud to call
some of the biggest companies on the market our clients.
VMblog: It comes as no
surprise that BYOD is bringing on a huge device management
problem. What does the BYOD problem actually look like today?
Miller: Today, network administrators face the challenge of managing multiple
devices per person on their Wi-Fi networks. And the problem continues to
compound as evidenced by Gartner's estimate of 25 billion Wi-Fi connected
devices by 2020, up from 5 billion today. This device explosion not only
severely stresses Wi-Fi networks, but also the IT administrators who must
support and secure them all. Bottom line, organizations are looking for
solutions that ease the burden of managing all these devices.
VMblog: You have a solution called EasyPass. Can you tell us
about it and how it helps?
Miller: EasyPass is a suite of services that manages mobile device connections
to Wi-Fi networks in the simplest way possible with minimal IT involvement. The
solution streamlines device onboarding for employees and guests and requires up
to five times less time and fewer steps than competitive solutions. It is the
only device-agnostic solution on the market completely eliminating platform
dependencies. As a cloud-hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, EasyPass
provides IT complete control over the Wi-Fi network from a single console.
Unlike other access solutions in the industry that are often highly complex,
Xirrus EasyPass simplifies installation and management, requires no dedicated
resources or training to implement, and works across all platforms and
operating systems regardless of device.
VMblog: What does the
EasyPass suite include?
Miller: The EasyPass suite of services includes three modules: EasyPass
Onboarding, EasyPass Guest and EasyPass Voucher.
- EasyPass Onboarding provides device-independent, secure access
for known users such as employees or students and ensures each user's
connection is individually secured. This eliminates the use of shared keys
found on many Wi-Fi networks that expose them to compromise.
- EasyPass Guest allows users to self-register without any
IT assistance. This feature delivers fast and easy Wi-Fi access for anyone
that wants to connect from anywhere, on any device.
- EasyPass Voucher enables guest access using pre-created
voucher codes. As a result, organizations gain greater control over who
receives Wi-Fi access to their networks and for how long.
VMblog: What are the
benefits of EasyPass for IT administrators and vendors? And what about users?
Miller: For IT administrators, EasyPass significantly streamlines IT
operations and reduces help desk calls by letting users securely connect their
personal devices to the Wi-Fi network on their own without need for deploying
certificates or installing applications. For guest networks, users can
self-register or use their social media credentials to connect. IT
administrators gain full visibility into client activities and they can enforce
access policies from anywhere through the cloud. End users benefit from the
reduction in the time and complexity of connecting to the Wi-Fi network, as
well as using secure connections to ensure privacy.
VMblog: Finally, can you tell us
more about Xirrus and the company's vision for the future of Wi-Fi?
Miller: We
were founded on the premise that "wireless would replace wired as the primary
choice for network access" and we continue to hold that vision - transforming
wired to wireless by providing the most powerful, scalable and simple wireless
access solutions to organizations who depend on it for day-to-day operations.
As wireless environments increase in density with the high-volume of connected
devices, we will continue to innovate to deliver solutions that enable our
customers to address their Wi-Fi networks today as well as adapt to the
ever-changing wireless landscape of the future.
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Once again, thank you to Bruce Miller, Xirrus VP of Marketing, for taking time out to speak with VMblog and answer a few questions.