Aerohive Unfurls Network-as-a-Service Offering

According to Joel Vincent, director of product marketing for Aerohive Networks, the new offering is built around an Aerohive BR200 router that has five Gigabit Ethernet ports, dual-band 3x3:3 11n Wi-Fi, USB for 3G/4G backhaul, two ports PoE PSE and crypto acceleration. That functionality is enabled by a HiveOS 5.0 release that enhances the ability of the HiveAP 330 and 350 devices to support branch router functionality, including 3G/4G backhaul for primary or backup WAN connectivity. Those devices can all be remotely managed via Aerohive’s cloud management service.

Vincent says that one of the major frustrations that end users working with branch offices routinely have is inconsistent access to the corporate network. Invariably, many of them wind up using extracurricular IT services that create a host of compliance and security issues for the organization.

In addition, Vincent notes that users in branch offices are now also trying to access more latency-sensitive applications, such as unified communications, that require reliable network connections.

Pricing for the service starts at $99 per branch office.