Cisco Mobility Express Introduces Controllerless APs to SMBs

Cisco Systems (CSCO) is looking to help partners capture new customer opportunities in the small- and medium-sized business market with the launch of the Cisco Mobility Express solution.

Cisco Mobility Express is a midmarket-centric, embedded controller offering that Cisco hopes will simplify the purchase and setup process for small enterprises looking to implement a more powerful Wi-Fi solution, while also helping channel partners introduce a swath of new customers to the networking company’s hardware, said Rad Sethuraman, senior director of Product Management at Cisco.

“What we have done with Mobility Express is take the controller function and embed it within the access point itself,” said Sethuraman, in an interview with The VAR Guy. “That means that it lowers the capex cost … and also makes the solution very, very simple to deploy.”

The technology can be loaded onto Cisco’s Aironet 1830 and 1850 Series 802.11ac Wave 2 Access Points, which allows users to manage up to 25 access points and support 500 clients within a single cluster. The solution runs on Cisco’s common technology platform and can deployed in less than 10 minutes, with a the Cisco Wireless Mobile App available for iOS and Android to control access points from mobile devices.

In addition to capturing the midmarket crowd, Cisco’s John Growdon said the launch of Cisco Mobility Express serves as the networking company’s first fully fleshed out offering in the embedded controller environment market.

“What this does for channel partners is it fills a gap in the product line and allows us to have a much better competitive offer for customers who fit that category in medium-sized environments where they are very cost conscious and they still want full functionality,” said Growdon, senior director of Cisco’s Global Partner Organization.

To support the launch of its Mobility Express solution, Cisco is expanding its CCNA Wireless Certification with the addition of support for its new access points and 802.11ac technology training. The certification is available now, as well as the Cisco Cloud-Based Predictive RF Planner Tool and two new analytics tools called Presence Analytics and Social Analytics as part of its Connective Mobile Experiences code.