Managing Recurring Revenue from Wi-Fi

14 Jul 2013

The Access Point is in many ways what's behind the big move to the cloud. Smartphones and tablets are their most effective when connected to a Wi-Fi network. Over the past five years, Wi-Fi has become even more prevalent than Starbucks and McDonalds (partly because they have Wi-Fi).

But how do you leverage the growth of Wi-Fi and the growth of cloud services in a single offer?

In August of 2011, Adtran acquired BlueSocket, a producer of Wi-Fi access points that can be managed from a hosted controller. Most enterprises build wireless infrastructure with a combination of access points and controllers. With BlueSocket, the controller becomes a cloud-ready service.

Now, Adtran takes it further with its ProServices offer that provides a path for channel partners to ride the cloud. ProServices are comprised of the three elements: ProStart, ProCare and ProCloud. ProStart offers startup services such as cabling and installation, ProCare provides maintenance solutions, and ProCloud offers managed services.

"The flexibility of ADTRAN's program empowers our partners to expand business opportunities and remain competitive by providing an international footprint," said Todd Lattanzi, director of product management for ADTRAN's Enterprise Network Division. "As a result, businesses spend less time and attention troubleshooting their IT challenges."

ProCloud will broaden, but initially centers around BlueSocket's managed Wi-Fi. It is offered to indirect channel partners in two flavors. The first model allows a partner to simply resell the managed service along with the access points and other services. Adtran delivers the managed services through its data center. Adtran ProCloud is staffed by certified engineers, and includes an SLA target of 99.99 percent uptime.

The other model, known as ProCloud Private, is aimed at partners that already have a managed services operation. Here, Adtran delivers infrastructure as a service to the partner. It enables partners to expand into Wi-Fi managed services without a significant initial investment.

BlueSocket access points are suitable for unified communications because they adhere to a split plane architecture. That means data traffic doesn't relay to the controller and local traffic stays local.

The BlueSocket gear does not require ProCloud. A customer can always deploy Adtran's free vWLAN software and control their own hardware should requirements change.

The APs are 802.11N and powered over Ethernet or local power. Adtran offers multiple models outdoor devices. Prices start with an MSRP of $135 per AP per year. ProCloud is independent, but can be combined with ProStart and ProCare.

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