Protelligent Blog

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) | Protelligent

Written by Christopher George | Jun 30, 2014 11:26:44 AM

BYOD (Bring your own device) is an emerging trend in today’s workplace. Allowing employees the freedom to choose the devices they want to use to consume and interact with information goes a long way in boosting productivity, cost savings and morale.
However, it’s not without its challenges. One of the big challenges is controlling access, specifically wireless access of all individual devices on your corporate network. Challenges with managing a traditional wireless network include:

  • Single shared password makes network insecure, but easy for people to add devices
  • Secure networks require IT intervention, and results in decreased productivity when adding devices
  • Hard to segment access for guest devices
  • Reconfiguration of security passwords requires changes on all devices

Now, the good news: A network powered by Ruckus® makes these obstacles history. The ZoneDirector™ appliance Ruckus® offers a one stop management interface for access points and WLANS. Ruckus® provides the ability to create both guest and private wireless networks. Guest networks are fully wall-gardened and prohibit devices attached to the network from seeing each other unless explicitly allowed. It gives guest devices access to the Internet while protecting private network resources without any additional complicated network configurations.
Automatic configuration deployments ensure that all your access points are up-to-date with the same configuration. Through their innovative Dynamic Pre-Shared Key (DPSK) technology, coupled with LDAP integration, users can self-provision devices via a self-service portal, which authenticates them using their network credentials, and assigns them a unique single-use security key. Once a device has been provisioned with a key, that key is tied to the device MAC address and can no longer be used on any other devices.
DPSK also makes it easy to remove access for a device by simply deleting its connection profile on the ZoneDirector™ without affecting anyone else’s access. Ruckus® gives you consolidated management, easy self-provisioning, and security lockdown capabilities without the need of IT intervention.
Handling BYOD with Ruckus:
INTEGRATED:
Ruckus has a fully integrated body of features to handle BYOD stress points for both administrators and users. First, we want to ensure that organizations can leverage their existing resources for BYOD enablement. To that end, we integrate with existing network segmentation and security architectures, authentication protocols, and directory services.
PURPOSE-BUILT:
Second, businesses need purpose-built features to handle mobile device connection and security challenges. Ruckus BeamFlex+ is specifically designed for mobile devices. The signal is directed only at the device, built-in polarization diversity maintains a strong signal regardless of device orientations, and ChannelFly ensure the device receives the best possible path for higher bandwidth. For BYOD software, Ruckus has built-in device provisioning and onboarding tools and workflows that are foolproof for users and simple to implement by IT staff.
FLEXIBILITY:
Administrators need flexibility to provide unique policies for specific device types. Our device fingerprinting and access control features provide this level of granular enforcement. The same device-specific awareness used to enforce policy is also brought to bear on monitoring and visibility to improve network operations, troubleshooting, and policy changes over time.
Finally, Ruckus provides the RF stability, scalability, and capacity needed to enable BYOD. Robust wireless performance enables users to connect and stay connected, making BYOD initiatives work for the business.
BYOD Features:

  • Dynamic PSK offers a per-user PSK, which finds an ideal balance between 802.1X and passphrases. It’s easy to implement, but highly secure
  • Zero-IT Activation securely provisions and onboards wireless clients in an intuitive way, enabling network users to connect without IT staff intervention
  • Directory Integration allows businesses to leverage existing directory investments — ActiveDirectory, LDAP, eDirectory — for BYOD device onboarding, user authentication, and policy
  • Device Fingerprinting and Policy provides the flexibility to create authorization profiles based on user, role, and device type
  • Client Visibility delivers granular monitoring and diagnostics so administrators and support staff can keep better tabs on, and make informed decisions about, usage trends and network behavior
  • Pervasive Performance is a Ruckus specialty. With unique features like BeamFlex, ChannelFly, and SmartCast, businesses can count on reliable connections and optimized mobile device capacity with fewer APs and less expensive solutions

Find out how a Ruckus® Wireless Solution can help your organization. Zen for your business, call (855) PRO-TELL or email us at sales@protelligent.net