Motorola Helps IT Departments Streamline Management of Wireless Networks and Devices

SAN FRANCISCO, March 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RSA 2010 (Motorola Booth #323 ) -- The Enterprise Mobility Solutions business of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today introduced the Motorola AirDefense Infrastructure Management solution, a powerful wireless LAN (WLAN) management tool designed to help IT departments gain better visibility into their networks and reduce operational costs associated with managing fast-changing, growingly complex and increasingly pervasive wireless networks. By delivering centralized management and control for the wireless infrastructure through a single console, Motorola's latest solution can help customers simplify and automate network management, significantly lowering the total cost of ownership and accelerating the return on their enterprise mobility investments.

The task of supporting multiple features in WLAN devices from different vendors, models and firmware versions is complex. The AirDefense Infrastructure Management solution provides a comprehensive WLAN Infrastructure Management module for seamless management of network devices from Motorola and other vendors, allowing network administrators to manage large deployments from a single interface. Its Centralized Management Console offers a vendor- and device-agnostic user interface to ensure consistency in configuration and compliance with policies, while also reducing device- and model-specific expertise required by network administrators to install or configure devices, simplifying their deployment.

The solution supports a variety of back-end management protocols to incorporate multiple vendor platforms and presents a normalized representation of statistics, configuration and faults to the administrator. Instead of separately managing multiple systems, IT departments can use a centralized management console to update device configurations and firmware, monitor device status, capture faults, audit and automatically correct device configuration issues, gather network statistics or generate trend and compliance reports.

"Enterprise mobility is considered a business necessity today, but most organizations still continue to be concerned about the operational costs associated with maintaining the increasing number and complexity of applications, devices and services available over today's wireless LANs," said Sujai Hajela, vice president and general manager for Wireless Network Solutions, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. "The vendor-agnostic infrastructure management solution marks the introduction of the Motorola AirDefense Services Platform, the industry's first service oriented WLAN platform designed to provide customers with best-in-class infrastructure management, network assurance and wireless security services."

About Motorola AirDefense Services Platform

While the capital expense of planning and deploying a WLAN continues to decline, the costs associated with maintaining the wireless infrastructure are becoming the focus. To help IT departments effectively address this issue, Motorola now offers the AirDefense Services Platform, which seamlessly integrates multi-vendor WLAN infrastructure management, a 24x7 Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (Wireless IPS) with built-in compliance reporting, and a full set of network assurance tools designed to remotely troubleshoot user connectivity issues and fix WLAN performance problems from a centralized IT helpdesk. The platform's modular approach allows customers to choose the services they need based on their specific requirements.

"Representing the industry's first comprehensive service oriented WLAN platform, Motorola's solution can be leveraged by IT departments to dramatically reduce the total cost of ownership and achieve quicker return on investment from their wireless infrastructure," said Dr. Amit Sinha, fellow and chief technologist for WLAN and Security, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. "IT organizations now have a holistic services platform that gives them the flexibility to address changing wireless needs as they leverage mobility to grow their business, improve communications-enabled business processes and enhance the mobile user's quality of experience."

Based on a field-proven distributed architecture, Motorola's powerful solution supports Motorola AirDefense sensors reporting back to a centralized appliance. Sensing can be provided by dedicated sensing devices or embedded in Motorola's award-winning access points (AP), such as the 802.11n adaptive tri-radio AP-7131, for additional hardware savings and reduced cabling costs.

The AirDefense Infrastructure Management solution announced today delivers vendor-agnostic management at the application, device and network layer, giving the IT staff unmatched visibility into the performance of their entire wireless mobility ecosystem. With support for both legacy standards and new devices, the solution helps customers migrate to 802.11n technologies or introduce mobility solutions across their organizations.

AirDefense Network Assurance features powerful tools designed to help IT departments lower the costs associated with maintaining their wireless infrastructure. It enables them to monitor and troubleshoot connectivity issues remotely, from a centralized location. The AirDefense Advanced Troubleshooting module proactively identifies wireless LAN configuration issues that affect business-critical applications, helping IT managers reduce or eliminate bottlenecks and minimize downtime across the entire network. The AirDefense Spectrum Analysis module provides IT departments with the ability to identify and classify possible sources of interference, such as microwave ovens or cordless phones, and view their impact on the wireless network coverage and performance. With the AirDefense LiveRF module, network administrators can visualize real-time RF coverage and assess the impact of noise and interference on different applications using the WLAN. And, the AirDefense Advanced Forensics module provides them with the ability to rewind and review detailed records of wireless activity, which can be used to assist in forensic investigations or wireless network troubleshooting.

AirDefense Security and Compliance offers customers the industry-leading AirDefense Wireless IPS module, which provides IT administrators with 24x7 monitoring and comprehensive security features for rogue wireless detection and containment. IT departments can also leverage the AirDefense Wireless Vulnerability Assessment module for automated remote wireless penetration testing, simulating attacks from a hacker's point of view to discover vulnerabilities that could be exploited. Field-proven in thousands of deployments worldwide, these tools give network managers the confidence that their networks are secure while also significantly reducing the cost of compliance with regulatory requirements mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) or Payment Card Industry (PCI).

The AirDefense Infrastructure Management solution and all other AirDefense Services Platform modules are available worldwide through Motorola channel partners and Motorola AirDefense sales.

Motorola delivers seamless connectivity that puts real-time information in the hands of users, which gives customers the agility they need to grow their business or better serve and protect the public. Working seamlessly together with its world-class devices, Motorola's unrivaled wireless network solutions include indoor wireless LAN, outdoor wireless mesh, point-to-multipoint, point-to-point networks and voice-over-WLAN solutions. Motorola AirDefense solutions are part of the broader One Point Wireless Suite, a set of powerful and innovative software solutions that reflect Motorola's holistic approach to network design, management, security and assurance.

Learn more about the AirDefense Infrastructure Management solution and see the AirDefense Services Platform in action by visiting Motorola at the following industry conferences:

• RSA 2010 conference in San Francisco, Calif. on March 1-5 (Booth #323)
• HIMSS 2010 conference in Atlanta, Ga. on March 1-4 (Booth #7701)

To get a fresh perspective on key trends in wireless networking, join Motorola technologists and industry experts on the Wireless Insights blog community.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $22 billion in 2009. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.

MOTOROLA and the stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Motorola, Inc.