Badger-Fi

Tag: machine learning

  • Moms Love Mist

    Mist Systems was another Mobility Field Day alumnus who chose to return and show us what they have been working on over the last year.  Mist has a very solid product line driven by a who’s who of individuals from the wireless industry.  For a refresher on who Mist is, check out this video from last year at MFD2. Mist has been working diligently on establishing a foot hold in the wireless industry.  Sudheer Matta, VP of Product Management, shared with us the steam (no pun intended) that Mist has been gathering within the market.  Mist has accumulated a couple Fortune 10s, several Fortune 100s, a bunch of large retailers, and a few airlines.  It seems as though confidence in the product is only increasing which is good to hear!  Check out the video below for an update.
    One of the biggest developments from Mist recently is the release of Marvis, their Virtual Network Assitant.  Marvis builds on and moves beyond what Mist is already known for, AI and machine learning.  Marvis simplifies the view of your network and can notify users of impending trouble and proactively mitigate the problem as well.  Mist claims that Marvis can identify issues and solve them when they happen, touting “near zero false positive” detection.  Marvis is also capable of combing through collected user data and can make real-time changes to the network based on information that it has collected.  Watch the video below where Bob Friday, co-founder and CTO, explains how Marvis works.
    Mist did a great job of presenting but the most interesting thing that occurred took place after Mist presented at MFD3.  When listening to the fellas from Mist, you will definitely see how passionate they are about the product and it’s importance to potential customers.  You get the impression that they truly care about and believe in the Mist product.  Anyone who has listened to Sudheer Matta’s excitement about Mist will agree that he absolutely believes in the capabilities of the Mist product line.  After Mist’s presentation at MFD3 I received a phone call from my mother.  She was very excited because she had just watched her son on a live stream on the internet (Moms get excited about that kind of stuff).  We began to talk about the first presentation and how it went.  The thing that surprised me most is that my mom understood and could hold a conversation about what Mist was about and their new product Marvis.  I had to stop for a second and try to remember who the lady was on the other end of the phone.  To know my mom is to understand that she is self admittedly NOT a tech person.  With that said she came away from the presentation with a fairly decent and basic knowledge of the product and had valid questions for me!  She told me how she thought Marvis was cool and how you could tell Sudheer really loved what he did.  She had genuine take away from the presentation which really blew my mind.  We talked for a few more minutes and then she wished me luck and we said goodbye.  I immediately began to think about Mist’s presentation and what I had just heard from my mom.  I came to the conclusion that Mist has really aligned themselves well with potential customers; those who are fully involved with the networks they maintain and those who know who to call when they need something addressed.  Mist was clear and concise about their product.  They presented the deep capabilities of the product and did it without being overwhelming.  We have seen and heard presentations before where we come away with a big bag of buzzwords, marketing hype, and no real foundation.  This is where Mist is getting it right and has a major advantage in a market clouded with big data, over used buzzwords, and a massive amount of information that could make even the savviest of customers want to run in the opposite direction.  They had made a connection with someone and were able to deliver their message clearly, simply, and without being over the top and confusing. Mist is still very young in the wireless game. It is obvious they have the right people with the right wireless pedigree steering the ship.  Their love and confidence of the product can only make Mist a bigger player in WiFi and analytics.  I am interested to see their 802.11ax offering and how they implement WPA3.  Keep up the good work guys! Watch other MFD3 videos from Mist below.

    Mist Systems Software Architecture with Bob Friday and Sudheer Matta

    Mist Systems AI-driven RRM with Bob Friday and Sudheer Matta

    Mist Systems AI for IT with Sudheer Matta

  • Nyansa; A Clearer Picture From a Data Gathering Powerhouse at #MFD3

    Nyansa was back at Mobility Field Day again this year and I have to admit, I took away more from them this year than last.  Nyansa makes a product called Voyance which delivers a crazy amount of data and insight into your network.  You might think you have a good idea about what is going on in the network, but I bet Voyance can show you things you never knew were there.  In a market full of dashboards, this dashboard gives you a plate full of data that you may or may not be able to consume.

    Anand Srinivas, Co-founder and CTO of Nyansa, began by describing how Voyance gives us a full client picture.  Voyance can give you full end to end visibility into your network; meaning it can deliver most/all data you have between your client and your application, which includes all the pieces in between.  This data can be collected several different ways before it is ultimately delivered to Voyance.  Nyansa also has an agent which can be loaded on a client (supporting most major client types) to collect.  At this time Voyance has built in support for Cisco, Aruba, and Extreme infrastructure equipment, as well as specialized equipment in specific verticals (ie. medical devices).  When listening to the presentation you start to wonder about the amount of data they are talking about.  Several delegates including myself had questions about how they expect customers to translate the data, how they support the data, and even how data is shared.  Watch the video below where Anand goes into detail about gathering the full client picture.

    More than a few delegates had questions about Nyansa’s agent.  Installing agents on every device in an enterprise can be a daunting undertaking.  There are also questions about which devices are out of bounds for an enterprise to deploy to; such as BYOD devices.  As an example, in my case the overwhelming majority of the wireless clients on my network are BYOD devices.  Being able to deploy an agent on enterprise owned equipment shows a VERY small piece of the pie.  IT support members also become hesitant with how much overhead agents put onto a client as well as other factors.  This question seems even more relevant based on what sounds like an overwhelming amount of data that is being sent.  We were assured by Anand that data sent via the agent was done so with minimal impact to the client or network.  Even though it may sound like there are more downsides than upsides with the agent, an agent will give you the best visibility into how the client is behaving.  You will be able to see things such as driver versions, software versions, hardware specs, client roaming information, etc.  These are all very awesome details to have when troubleshooting and are often the parts left out when using a vendor specific NMS solution within your wireless network.  Watch and listen to Anand explain the Voyance agent below.

    Nyansa is also taking on another hot button topic in the wifi industry; IoT.  For those who don’t know what IoT is, it is short for Internet of Things.  Manufactures are putting wifi capability into all kinds of crazy “things” these days.  Refrigerators, thermostats, TVs, coffee makers, door bells, lighting, etc can all be connected to your wireless network now.  Most of the time the wireless devices that manufacturers put into their “things” are very limited in capability, poorly designed, or of poor quality.  A refrigerator manufacturer is usually very good at making refrigerators, but they may not be educated in the ways of wireless networking.  Lacking an understanding of wireless networking could potentially cause poor performance for the refrigerator, the wireless network it is connected to, or both.  Keep in mind that IoT devices are not all novelty.  There are very important “things” out there such as life supporting devices in healthcare, robots in manufacturing, or other devices critical to specific verticals.  Either way Nyansa has something to keep those pesky IoT devices in check.  Check out both videos below.

    My Take

    I believe Nyansa can be a player in the wireless analytics market.  There were many discussions among delegates about the feasibility of a high cost, third party analytics platform for wireless networks.  As already noted, many of the current wireless solutions themselves have “more than basic” analytics cooked into their respective controllers.  This does not downplay the information that Voyance is capable of providing though.  Voyance can give you great insight into the client, end point, as well as all things in between, which most controllers cannot.  There are upsides and downsides to this amount of information though.  I think that the amount of information could potentially be overwhelming to prospective customers.  I believe Nyansa understands this.  Molding the data that is collected by Voyance to suite each customer’s need is of utmost importance as to not overwhelm a customer.  There could be a very thin line that separates information overload and just the right amount of data to solve a problem in an enterprise.  That is where Nyansa should be careful.

    The more I listen to Nyansa the more I am intrigued by the product.  Last year I was left somewhat confused.  This year I have a better idea about what they are about and where they are going.  There is no dispute that the information gathered by Voyance could be very helpful, but are potential customers going to bite on a product that adds another dashboard into an already crowded dashboard arena?  I often wonder if Nyansa is candidate for purchase by an existing wireless vendor for integration into their own portfolio.  This idea makes more sense to me as it doesn’t add an additional dashboard to a customer’s toolbox, but offers a potential “single pane of glass” to their existing wireless infrastructure.  A solid infrastructure paired with built in analytics from Voyance could be a very powerful combination.