[Sponsored] Is Cloud-Based Network Management Right for You?

[thiggins]

Cloud managed networks aren't just for Enterprises anymore.

Continue reading on SmallNetBuilder

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

For us MSPs...(IT guys that take care of SMBs)...centralizing management of our clients is a very important and valuable feature for us. For pretty much ANY of our services. It's important to keep things as centralized as possible for us, have a portal for key important services we manage, such as our RMM tool N-Central (remote monitoring and management), our backup/disaster recovery services (Solarwinds BDR, Datto), Untangle added a console several years ago. About 10 years ago some products came out for network equipment, such as Meraki, OpenMesh, and Ubiquiti.

Having things centralized in a multi-tenant dashboard is important to us because it's quicker and easier to make changes, or just eyeball the status of things. Less time we spend doing something makes things that save time more profitable for MSP clients that pay a fixed monthly price for services. Versus the old fashioned time consuming way of having to log on locally onto each device to make changes.

 

[Razor512]

https://www.zyxel.com/library/assets/solutions/nebula/pdf/nebula-licensing-table.pdf

While their free tier is still limited, it seems less restrictive than other non-cloud systems where some companies will sell a super expensive wireless controller, and then limit you to like 3 APs and then require you to purchase a license to support more APs.

Though one thing I would really like to see is an examination of the total cost of ownership of a non-cloud reliant system as compared to a cloud reliant one where you opt for the paid cloud service in order to get the full functionality, vs a system where you buy a wireless controller and then purchase one of the ripoff licenses in order to support more APs.

 

[Mordred]

Cloud based management would be cool, in case the device can also be managed standalone, e.g. when connection to cloud fails and it should allow to completely disable cloud based management, for security reasons and if the device has no internet access.

 

[System Error Message]

gotta post this

The main factor for the consumer is cost, this is where china is beating the US at, with their extremely cheap stuff that works, while may cost more in the long run. However i've seen china make good quality stuff cheaper too.

So if you try to apply high cost devices and service payments to the consumer, it will not work as its not the same as an enterprise environment where part of the cost goes into good support. This is why i dont see many zyxels among consumers, they're quality is decent, not as good as asus though and they arent as updated. In consumer space, price is king, reliability and support 2nd. If people cant afford to pick up your product in the first place, dont expect to do well.

Cloud based management, if it is both a bunch of servers elsewhere and your own home ones are used, this is how it should be, having both a centralised and decentralised model, but most services only have a centralised model with a bunch of servers in the "cloud".

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Zyxel's quality used to be very good back in the early days...Windows NT 4/95 days. They actually were the OEM for many of Netgears biz level products, back when Bay Networks owned Netgear. Popular products in the small business networks in the very early days of broadband..such as the Netgear RT314 router...you could put Netgear products next to Zyxel products and easily see they rolled out the same factory...just different color paint on their metal case.

 

[sfx2000]

The main factor for the consumer is cost, this is where china is beating the US at, with their extremely cheap stuff that works, while may cost more in the long run. However i've seen china make good quality stuff cheaper too.

Just comes down to the matter of trust...

 

[coxhaus]

Everything seems to be moving into a cloud environment which is a lot different than when I was back working. I am now supporting my daughter's small Real estate business and all her APPs are running in the cloud where they pay a monthly fee. There are no real APPs on the PCs any more as they just use a browser. It seems some browsers work better with different APPs.

 

[Richard Woolman]

It might not up to the replacement of Meraki or Aerohive, but I'd definitely try it to replace some of the old non-cloud access points or switches that I'm still managing.

 

[Threska49]

For us MSPs...(IT guys that take care of SMBs)...centralizing management of our clients is a very important and valuable feature for us. For pretty much ANY of our services. It's important to keep things as centralized as possible for us, have a portal for key important services we manage, such as our RMM tool N-Central (remote monitoring and management), our backup/disaster recovery services (Solarwinds BDR, Datto), Untangle added a console several years ago. About 10 years ago some products came out for network equipment, such as Meraki, OpenMesh, and Ubiquiti.

Having things centralized in a multi-tenant dashboard is important to us because it's quicker and easier to make changes, or just eyeball the status of things. Less time we spend doing something makes things that save time more profitable for MSP clients that pay a fixed monthly price for services. Versus the old fashioned time consuming way of having to log on locally onto each device to make changes.

I could see the advantages with a private cloud without the vulnerabilities of a public one.

 

[Richard Woolman]

I could see the advantages with a private cloud without the vulnerabilities of a public one.

I guess not every MSP has the skill set, or cash, or interest to build a proper private cloud. The question to ask is to hire a technician to manage customer network, or to manage the private cloud.