Nomadix
Tackling BYOD

The explosion of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile devices is changing the way organizations must manage their public and private Internet access networks. Indeed, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement has created a “bandwidth tsunami” that has left organizations struggling to keep up with the exabytes of data crossing their networks. CIOs are being forced to reevaluate their current policies and look for solutions to help them squeeze more performance out of existing bandwidth. They must also address how to better manage and control these devices as well as provide enhanced security for their network. These tasks are often easier said than done.

Like any resource, Internet access needs to be managed. We have the capabilities to on-board users’ devices to the network, monitor usage and provide a fair share of bandwidth to alleviate many of the concerns associated with BYOD

One company tackling this issue is California-based Nomadix–an innovator and pioneer of bandwidth management and public access gateways. According to Nomadix Chief Commercial & Operating Officer Fred Reeder, “Like any resource, Internet access needs to be managed. The more demand for the resource, the more management is required to ensure each user gets fair access to bandwidth, the network is secure and the quality of connection is optimum.”

To solve the inherent challenges created by BYOD, companies should focus not on the devices themselves but in enabling those devices to easily connect to the Internet through easy and secure on-boarding and the provisioning of bandwidth. Nomadix supplies enterprise-class solutions to expand wired or Wi-Fi connectivity to

enable BYOD access on a network, thus providing easy and reliable Internet access for users. Through its patented capabilities, Nomadix offers companies the ability to securely on-board users’ devices to the network.

Beyond simply on-boarding devices, it’s critical for companies to monitor and manage network usage. By interfacing with various user control databases such as Radius, LDAP and active directory, Nomadix solutions pagement and tracking capabilities. For instance, the ability to prioritize usage– through fair sharing, fair weighted queuing, class-based queuing and application-based prioritization–allows IT staff to allocate bandwidth by priority, location or class. Although traditional security safeguards like firewalls, antivirus and anti-spam measures are still necessary to protect users from outside sources, Nomadix adds capabilities to protect users from each other inside network.

A variety of entities have turned to Nomadix to help them address the issues surrounding BYOD. One such entity is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) – an American financial and commodity derivative exchange company. CME uses a Nomadix gateway to create a “guest network” exclusively for their employees who bring their own device to the office. Even though CME had their own network and full control using their own VPN connections between branches, they wanted to create a network that would only be accessible to authorized devices. "Nomadix also provided a failover configuration to allow redundancy for improved up¬time and access of these employee-only devices," says Reeder, “Our gateway has helped CME increase reliability, along with the failover capability, to support all employee devices no matter how they are connected.”

As Nomadix looks to the future, they will continue to strive for new ways to enhance the BYOD experience. The company envisions adding capabilities that will capture network usage based on the nature of the application and provide detailed user information, generating huge amounts of valuable data. “Reliable and highly-replicable data analytics can be hugely advantageous–and we’re seeing a greater demand for predictive analytics that offer real-time based solutions that add value from centralized capabilities in the cloud to more consolidated capabilities at the edge,” concludes Reeder. “By honing in on these trends, we can tackle the challenges associated with BYOD head-on and bring unparalleled value to our customers.”