Arun ShankarLinksys announced Middle East regional launch of Linksys Cloud Manager, a cloud-hosted WiFi Management Platform purpose-built for small business environments that reduces costs and increases operational efficiencies. The solution offers centralised visibility, management and control of a wireless network without cost and complexity of traditional hardware controllers, overlay software, or annual hosting costs.
Being a Middle East first solution, Linksys Cloud Manager enables IT administrators and other authorised users to remotely monitor, manage and troubleshoot single or distributed wireless networks in real time via a single dashboard and sign-on.
This plug-n-play platform helps provide secure remote access to Linksys Business Wireless-AC Access Points, which are built with enterprise-grade, high-performance hardware, and is competitively priced with no licensing or maintenance fees for five years. The included cloud license fits any budget and provides a complete solution for IT solutions providers and their SMB customers.
Linksys Cloud Manager is a solution for resellers and IT solutions providers looking to develop a managed service model and generate recurring revenue. For those who already are, it’s a compelling alternative to pricier cloud solutions and will help round out their product portfolio to address customers with smaller IT budgets.
Limited resources, constrained spending budgets, and the proliferation of devices and IoT are further complicating wireless networks, and as a result, driving SMBs to move toward network managed services where an IT partner is responsible for the network on an ongoing basis. The migration to cloud-based applications and everything-as-a-service presents a big growth opportunity in the SMB space for IT channel providers.
Linksys Cloud Manager is pre-installed on select Linksys Business Wireless-AC Access Points, which plan to be available in October 2018.
“There is a gap in the Middle East market for affordable, business-grade cloud managed WiFi management platforms designed specifically for SMBs,” said Amanulla Khan, Managing Director Linksys Middle East, Turkey and Africa. “Current offerings are either built with consumer-grade hardware or with expensive, enterprise features with prohibitive annual hosting fees. A common complaint is enterprise offerings are complex and over-engineered with features and functionality beyond the usual requirements of a small business network.”
“Linksys places high importance on being partner-centric and meeting their needs with competitive solutions and programs. Linksys Cloud Manager was designed by truly listening to our regional channel partners’ business goals and challenges, and it addresses a gap where current cloud WiFi platforms fall short,” continued Khan. “Linksys Cloud Manager makes it easier for IT solutions providers to remotely manage clients’ WiFi networks, and to increase revenue and profit in the Middle East SMB market.”
“While investigating the needs of SMBs, we quickly realised they had the needs of larger companies, but the market lacked an affordable and easy-to-use cloud management system,” said Anthony Pham, Senior Product Manager, Linksys. “Linksys Cloud Manager meets an underserved gap for true, business-grade cloud SMB networking at a price point that no other vendor can match.”
Key takeaway
- Linksys Cloud Manager enables administrators to monitor, manage, troubleshoot wireless networks in real time via a single dashboard.
- This platform helps provide secure remote access to Linksys Business Wireless-AC Access Points, built with enterprise-grade hardware.
- It is competitively priced with no licensing or maintenance fees for five years.
- Cloud license fits any budget and provides a solution for IT providers and their SMB customers.
- Linksys Cloud Manager is a solution for resellers looking to develop a managed service model and generate recurring revenue.
- It is an alternative to pricier cloud solutions.
