Path to Increased Profitability

Ishak Kang, CEO of DotUI in San Francisco, is an early adopter of technology solutions.  When a major hotel in Monterey, California, renovated its popular sports bar with cutting-edge entertainment technology, it turned to Ishak.  And Ishak turned to us for the access points.

“DotUI is delivering the future to our clients today,” said Ishak Kang, CEO of DotUI, a leading technology integrator in the San Francisco area.  “DotUI is bringing smart building solutions to market to better manage resources.  We’ve moved far beyond desktop support and now manage a wide variety of devices for energy efficiency.  PowerCloud Systems has eliminated the problems associated with unreliable and unsecure Wi-Fi, giving us a trouble-free infrastructure to build on with confidence.”

Announcing: The First Business-Grade, Cloud-Managed Wi-Fi Solution Built Specifically for Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs)

Today D-Link officially announced its Breakthrough Wi-Fi Cloud Solution for SMBs.

The breakthrough product of course is D-Link’s DAP-2555 Access Point Powered by CloudCommand, our first commercial product on the CloudCommand networking platform.  The DAP-2555 became available last month, and from Day One user response has been incredibly positive.

Here’s the press release:

D-Link Introduces Breakthrough Wi-Fi Cloud Solution for SMBs

Powered by CloudCommand, Online Software Platform Delivers Affordable Business-Grade Wi-Fi to Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CA– D-Link, the end-to-end networking solutions provider for consumers, businesses, and service providers, today announced that it has launched the world’s first business-grade, cloud-managed Wi-Fi solution specifically built to meet the connectivity and security needs of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)(1). The new DAP-2555 AirPremier^® N Dual Band, PoE Access Point powered by CloudCommand™ delivers a Wi-Fi environment with core business-grade features for a fraction of what traditional enterprise solutions cost, filling the product gap between non-scalable, consumer-grade Wi-Fi products and complex, expensive enterprise platforms within the SMB market.

Read the Release

Atheros Adds CloudCommand to Wi-Fi Chipsets

From SmallCloudBuilder and reporter Matt Smollinger:

Atheros has bundled cloud-based management capability from PowerCloud Systems into its networking software platform, enabling cloud management for routers and access points based on Atheros chipsets.

Cloud managed routers are not a new concept, as Meraki continues to improve its cloud-based router offering.

However, Meraki’s products are relatively expensive and require an ongoing subscription fee. Atheros’ addition of PowerCloud’s CloudCommand technology will allow Atheros’ OEM partners to provide a similar, Meraki-esque experience.

CloudCommand will give smaller businesses management features similar to those enjoyed by larger enterprises using expensive, multi-AP management solutions. However, those systems don’t scale down to meet smaller businesses’ needs very well, which might have only a small number of APs to manage.

Atheros is hoping to change this by allowing OEMs to cloud-base multi-AP management and bring cost-effective and flexible wireless network management to more products.

Atheros + PowerCloud Systems = The First WLAN Chipsets With Cloud Management Features

Here’s today’s press release on the Atheros and PowerCloud Systems collaboration to add cloud management capabilities to Atheros’ WLAN solutions for small, medium and large enterprise networks:

SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwire – 01/24/11) – Atheros Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHR – News), a global leader in innovative technologies for wireless and wired communications, today announced it has added cloud management capabilities to its WLAN solutions for small, medium and large enterprise networks. Through collaboration with PowerCloud Systems, Atheros is offering CloudCommand™ technology in its XSPAN® software development kit, which enables wireless access points and routers to be deployed and managed from the cloud with a web browser. This will accelerate the adoption of cloud-managed network devices and expand the opportunities for networking.

Read the Release

2011:Year of the (Wireless) Cloud

Craig J. Mathias is a principal with Farpoint Group, a wireless and mobile advisory firm, and one of the industry’s leading visionaries.  His Nearpoints blog at Network World is must-reading for anyone in the wireless space, and today he highlights the rapid realization of cloud-based wireless networking.   For the second time this week, our CloudCommand networking platform is showcased as a leading solution on the cutting edge of an unstoppable industry trend.   A great way to finish the week!

With the primary differences between SMB and enterprise-class WLAN products essentially a function of management capabilities and scalability (and, granted, specialized features in some cases), think of the doors that open when the capabilities of these two classes of WLAN converge. Cloud-based management has evolved rapidly over the past two years and numerous implementations are now serving customers across the globe.

Read the Posting

Animated Video: Wireless Product Overview

Check out our new video!  It highlights how CloudCommand technology is powering D-Link’s DAP-2555 to deliver to small- and medium-sized businesses a cloud-based, business-grade wireless network for a fraction of what traditional enterprise costs.  Click the image for the video.

Many thanks to our talented media team at Demo60 for the animation.

You can see the video at our YouTube channel.

Media

Videos » YouTube

Embed, Quick Embed, Shortcode, Video

Contents

• Embedding with a Shortcode
• Video Customization Options
• Video
• Comment Embeds
• Troubleshooting

Related

• Blip.tv
• DailyMotion
• Flickr Video
• Google Video
• Kyte.tv
• LiveVideo
• PodTech
• Redlasso
• Splashcast
• TED Talks
• Viddler
• Videolog
• Vimeo
• Vodpod

To quickly embed a YouTube video, simply copy the video’s URL from your web browser’s address bar while viewing the video:

And paste it on a line by itself in your post/page editor:

We take care of the rest! The video will look something like this:

Embedding with a Shortcode

If you’d like to customize the video’s size and settings, you’ll want to create a shortcode. To do so, copy the video URL:

Paste the URL on a line by itself in your post/page editor. Then create a shortcode using the format below. Be sure to replace the URL listed here with the URL of your video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNH56Vpg-A]

↑ Table of Contents ↑

Video Customization Options

You can specify the width and height of the embedded video by adding &w=... or &w=...&h=...to the shortcode. It will automatically adapt to your theme’s content length and give you preferred dimensions.

• You can disable related videos by appending &rel=0
• You can turn on the search box by appending &showsearch=1

For example, this shortcode

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNH56Vpg-A&w=640&h=385]

Cloudy, With A Chance Of Networking

“If these system providers have their way, branch office networks will never be outfitted and managed the same way, and big dollars will be saved by those shopping for new solutions.” So says Network Computing and Lee H. Badman in an insightful posting about early 2011 happenings in the world of cloud-based wireless networking.

Wow, this is significant on so many levels.  We’ve been live only a couple weeks — and we’re already sharing the page with Aerohive and Meraki, two titans of our space!  Even better, they notice us.

Yes, PowerCloud is yet another contender for the growing cloud-based networking environment. But the differentiator is in the form of cloud-enabling firmware that gets baked into commodity-class hardware, as with the D-Link DAP-2555 access point. From humble consumer-grade roots, this access point gets bulked up with the CloudCommand operating system to become enterprise-ready and aimed at SMB customers ready for cost reductions that come from cloud management. The DAP-2555 is just the tip of the iceberg, as PowerCloud prepares to announce partnerships with well-known component makers that will provide compatibility with CloudCommand as an out-of-the box option.

Read the Posting

The Story Is a Good One

The 451 Group is an independent technology-industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation.  Steve Steinke, Research Director, Networks, released an analysis of our CloudCommand technology.  Steve gets it, and he wrote some very positive words about us.  CloudCommand is an online networking platform — Wi-Fi is just the beginning of what we can do.

To access the full report, you must subscribe (sign up for a trial).  Here’s an excerpt:

“We think that Wi-Fi software isn’t the only product sector that can take advantage of the PowerCloud approach. Storage, routing, switching and security might also respond to an approach that separates hardware development from software development, with cloud-based configuration, setup and management.”

We think the summary of our strength says it all:

The story is a good one – bundling feature-heavy software with lightweight hardware to keep costs low may work not only for PowerCloud but also provide an example for other vendors. PARC’s reputation for ideas and quality is a good one.

Untangled Solutions: Early Diagnoses & Quick Cures Using CloudCommand

Untangled Solutions, Los Angeles’ leading IT consultancy for healthcare, has been testing a CloudCommand-powered wireless network.  Joshua M. Smith, one of Untangled’s leading strategists, says:

“I’m beyond happy with the performance and really appreciate the SMS alert feature.  When there is a network issue, the access point immediately texts our engineer’s cell phone, and he fixes the problem from his desk before the customer even knows something’s wrong.”

Josh is talking about the cool alert feature on the D-Link DAP-2555 powered by CloudCommand.  It notifies network administrators in real time via text and email when there’s an issue.  This is a powerful tool for managed service providers (MSPs), who control customers networks remotely using our cloud-based software.  Administrators receive an alert when an issue occurs, and in most cases they resolve it remotely (i.e., no truck rolls) before the customer even realizes something is wrong.

Breaking Our Own World Record for a Fast Deployment

Mariani's Inn in Silicon Valley

We recently obliterated our own world record for a lightning-fast deployment of a CloudCommand self-configuring Wi-Fi network.

The Job: Hospitality.  Replace an existing consumer Wi-Fi network with a CloudCommand-powered network

The Scope: Multiple buildings on 5 acres across two city blocks

The Site: Landmark Mariani’s Hotel in Silicon Valley

IT Solution Provider: The brilliant guys at FastLaneTek, one of our favorite MSPs and VARs.

The Goal: Deploy the network and have it running within 90 minutes.

THE RESULT:  SUCCESS!  DEPLOYED & OPERATIONAL IN <60 MINUTES!

Fastlane Tek is a local MSP that manages all of Mariani’s IT services.  First, it configured the new network’s administrator privileges and network settings.  This took only 12 minutes. (Actually it took less time, but we also talked about football.)  Then it was time to deploy…

Getting Ready to Deploy CloudCommand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At each building, FastLane Tek replaced a weak consumer Wi-Fi product (3 different brands!) with our APs, the D-Link DAP-2555.  The “work” consisted of connecting an Internet cable to our AP and supplying power.  Each AP automatically self-configured in less than 2 minutes.  On to the next one…

Deploying APs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking good from here.  Most of our 70 minutes time was spent checking signal strength…

Checking Signal Strength

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smile and Say, “CloudCommand!”  Staff and management were thrilled.  Until today, unreliable Wi-Fi connectivity had been the No. 1 guest complaint.  Not anymore!  (Check back soon to see the deployment video.)

The DAP-2555 Access Point Powered by CloudCommand