Meraki Enhances Wireless Cloud Service SecurityMeraki Enhances Wireless Cloud Service Security

Cloud services have been very popular among small and medium businesses because it enables them to take advantage of leading edge technology without adding a lot of management headaches. As a result, Meraki, which has been delivering wireless cloud services, beefed up the security features found with its Cloud Controller.The vendor announced its service now includes Identity Policy Manager (IPM) features, so users can manage multiple user policies. Companies have different types of users who need access to their wireless networks. With the service, a company can deliver the appropriate services to different groups of users, for instance granting access to a partner who happens to be working from the companys office. The product features VLAN tagging, firewall access control lists (ACLs), and bandwidth limits on a per-device, per-user, or per-group basis.

While much of the attention in the cloud market has been focused on delivering applications to companies, Meraki has made an infrastructure as a service play. Customers purchase a wireless access point connection for $150 per year. The company, which has been in business for about four years, claims to have 14,000 cloud customers, with more than 6 million users. Much of its early activities seem to be focused on industries where wireless communications is important, such as academic institutions and hotels.

While wireless networks can be relatively easy to deploy, they can be difficult to manage. Services, such as those from Meraki, should become more popular in the future. With hardware margins falling and competition intensifying, larger vendors may show more interest in such services. Since Meraki is relatively small, how it will fare as the market evolves is open to question.