Pembrokeshire County Council Uses AirMagnet's WLAN Products to Manage Public Networks
AirMagnet's planning and survey tools deliver significant time and cost savings as Pembrokeshire rolls out new Wi-Fi networks for the public
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jul 31, 2007 — AirMagnet Inc., the leader in security, performance and compliance solutions for wireless LANs (WLAN) today announced that Pembrokeshire County Council (United Kingdom) is using AirMagnet's wireless network planning and analysis tools to plan and implement more than 30 public wireless networks in the region. Pembrokeshire already utilizes several AirMagnet products and the new agreement includes versions of AirMagnet Laptop Analyzer, the industry's most popular mobile field tool for troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks, as well as the industry leading WLAN site survey tool, AirMagnet Survey.
As a UK County Council, Pembrokeshire is increasingly turning to wireless networks to support a wide variety of local services and educational operations based in a variety of multi-purpose environments. Because many of these new services are housed in existing authority buildings, successful wireless network implementation and the continued provision of uninterrupted coverage can be challenging. AirMagnet's experience in ensuring and optimizing the performance of mission-critical wireless networks to the public sector, teamed with the high levels of support the council has received, made the decision to continue working with the company an obvious choice for Pembrokeshire.
"In many cases, particularly those in educational establishments, wireless networks can be invaluable in terms of removing the need for bulky and often dangerous cables, as well as taking up less space," said Chris Davies, senior systems analyst for Pembrokeshire County Council. "In addition, they can improve productivity significantly, for example in our wireless enabled buildings, staff have become much more mobile because of their ability to move from one office or meeting to another without it impacting negatively on their output."
Any network downtime has an immediate and serious impact on business performance and unless information about the network is immediately available, it can be difficult for the systems team to identify, much less rectify performance or security issues. AirMagnet's leading suite of network analysis tools enable the team to pre-empt and avoid any potential performance problems when planning new network installations as well as supporting existing WLANs in the event of a performance issue or security breach.
According to Davies, "AirMagnet is a must have tool for successfully planning wireless networks. AirMagnet Survey lets us see and plan for factors such as wireless coverage and overlapping channels, helping to speed up network implementation and establish coverage areas from the first instance. Prior to using AirMagnet's tools it could take several weeks to physically survey a large site to establish the best locations for access points. In one educational facility, which needed more than 30 access points, the time was reduced from the expected two weeks to just over three days using AirMagnet's Survey, reducing costs and increasing speed significantly."
AirMagnet Survey stands apart from other market solutions by enabling organizations to collect live signal, packet and spectrum data during site surveys. This allows users to simulate and measure network performance and offer the most accurate depiction of a real-world user experience, which ultimately results in a better performing WLAN. AirMagnet Survey also incorporates floor plans of each building, allowing the user to test the placement of access points in order to decide where to deploy each for optimal coverage. Following installation of a wireless network, AirMagnet Laptop Analyzer helps IT staff make sense of end-user complaints to quickly resolve performance problems, while automatically detecting security threats and other network vulnerabilities. Although compact, Laptop Analyzer has many of the feature-rich qualities of a dedicated, policy-driven WLAN monitoring system.
"Public sector services need to ensure a highly resilient infrastructure due to the high percentage of employees and local users dependent on the wireless network to access information," said Ian Schenkel, Managing Director, EMEA, at AirMagnet. "Through our experience of working with a number of County Councils, we understand the challenges facing the sector and are well positioned to provide support and tools that are able to pre-empt and resolve WLAN performance and security issues. Building on an existing relationship with Pembrokeshire is testament to our appreciation and understanding of its operations."
About AirMagnet Inc.
AirMagnet Inc. is the leader in security, performance and compliance solutions for wireless LANs. The company's innovative products include AirMagnet Enterprise, the leading 24x7 WLAN security and performance management solution, and AirMagnet Laptop Analyzer — which is known as the "de facto tool for wireless LAN troubleshooting and analysis." Other products provide WLAN site survey and design, RF interference detection, remote diagnostics, and the world's first voice over WiFi analysis solution. AirMagnet has more than 6,000 customers worldwide, including 75 of the Fortune 100. The company, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.AirMagnet.com.
©2007 AirMagnet Inc. All rights reserved. AirMagnet® and AirWISE® are registered trademarks, and the AirMagnet logo is a trademark, of AirMagnet Inc. All other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
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