Linksys, the connected home and business division within the Belkin International and Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT) (HK: 6088) entity, today announces a new global release of Linksys Cloud Manager 2.0, an upgraded, cloud-hosted WiFi Management Platform purpose-built for SMB environments that reduces costs and increases operational efficiencies around remote WiFi management.

Linksys Cloud Manager 2.0 enables IT administrators and other authorized users to remotely monitor, manage and troubleshoot single or distributed wireless networks in real time via a single dashboard and sign-on. The platform offers centralized visibility and control of a wireless network without the cost and complexity of traditional hardware controllers, overlay software, or annual hosting costs.

Free Limited Lifetime Enterprise-grade Cloud Network Management without the Enterprise-class License Fees

Small businesses need a more affordable and easy-to-use Cloud Managed WiFi solution, and mid-sized companies have license fatigue from costly yearly licenses for management. With Linksys Cloud Manager 2.0, the company is eliminating the cost barrier for using a Cloud Managed WiFi solution.

In a stand-out industry move, Linksys is upgrading its offering from five years free management to Limited Lifetime* Free Management.  Competitive solutions charge up to $100-150 per Access Point (AP) per year, which adds up quickly for a business with multiple locations. The included cloud license fits any budget and provides a complete solution for IT solutions providers and their SMB customers, and isn’t a bait and switch using basic models and upselling with “pro” features.

WiFi Marketing: Cloud-hosted Customizable WiFi Splash Page for Increased Customer Engagement and Brand Loyalty

Offering a guest WiFi network is a must-have for businesses and provides a perfect opportunity to engage customers and build brand loyalty. Savvy businesses have started embracing captive portals upon sign-in but existing templates are limited in design and function, or cost extra.

Linksys is the first cloud network management vendor to offer a captive portal with an advanced splash page editor built into the platform. Businesses can now create a fully customizable, mobile-ready splash page in under five minutes with no HTML experience and easily apply to SSID. The built-in splash page editor allows users to display images of any size and personalize text in multiple fonts and languages, drag and drop ready-made elements to a splash page, set terms and conditions to make a WiFi network fully compliant with current laws, and more.

Additional updates include:

• Superior hardware and WiFi roaming performance: 802.11k/r/v/u “Agile Multiband” facilitates better management of WiFi networks and seamless roaming across all access points by enabling devices to better respond to changing WiFi network conditions. This helps eliminate the “sticky client” problem, providing end users the best possible WiFi experience.
• WiFi marketing services: ability to serve advertisements and videos to WiFi users, visitor analytics and demographics information, integration with Mailchimp for email campaigns and more maximizes ROI and engagement with customers; Full capabilities suite available before end-of-year.
• Free dedicated technical support: dedicated CCNA certified or higher technicians provides the expertise needed to support deployments compared to self-help online forums.
• Zero-touch deployment: configuration can be done in a user’s cloud account, eliminating the need to configure access points on-site. Simply enter the serial number and MAC address of the device to add an access point to Cloud Manager to configure and access remotely from anywhere with an internet connection.
• Migration: existing Cloud Manager users will be able to upgrade to Cloud Manager 2.0 for free. This 2.0 upgrade offers many new features but also eliminates a few 1.0 features. Although the upgrade is not required, it is recommended especially if existing devices are coming up to the five year license end date.

 “The effect of COVID-19 has brought the limitations and costs of managing IT environments into the spotlight. As companies plan for the road ahead, many are thinking about how to meet the needs of a new business reality while cutting IT spend,” said Amanulla Khan, Managing Director, Linksys MEA: “We consistently hear complaints about cloud offerings with rigid subscription fees or low-cost services with a limited feature set. In this release, Linksys is helping organizations eliminate wasted cloud spend without sacrificing the enterprise features required for optimal performance.”

AVAILABILITY
Linksys Cloud Manager 2.0 will be available on October 26th at https://www.linksys.com/us/cloud-manager/