If you're familiar with Aerohive, you’ve probably seen our mascot, the Aerohive BEE, around. We’re making the Aerohive BEE a celebrity AGAIN in our latest contest - the #SelfieBEE.

We kicked things off last week at the ISTE 2014 conference, but this week the contest continues. And everyone is invited to participate!

All you have to do is tweet #SelfieBEE photos of the Aerohive BEE for a chance to win one of two GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition cameras.

1. Upload a photo of the Aerohive BEE using the hashtag #SelfieBEE on Twitter or Instagram.
2. You must include the #SelfieBEE hashtag for your entry to register
3. Even better if you snap a pic of yourSELF with the BEE for a true #SelfieBEE! 
4. Include @Aerohive in your tweet so more people can see your fun #SelfieBEE photo!
5. Kick back and relax: The winners will be chosen at random and announced the week of July 21, 2014.
6. Spread the word and enter as many times as you'd like! 
7. You’ve entered the easiest contest ever!
8. Need an Aerohive BEE? Submit your BEE request here.

You can also enter via Facebook, although there are a few more steps. Follow the bitly link or scan the QR below to go directly to our contest tab on Facebook. You will need to like our page to enter. Please note: Posting to our timeline will not enter your photo into the contest. You must post to the contest page to enter via Facebook.

You only entered once? Enter as many times as you'd like through July 19, 2014

Two winners will be chosen at random and announced the week of July 21, 2014

As with all contests, some rules apply: 

• Bee requests will be sent to a business email address to be eligible. No personal email e.g. @yahoo, @gmail, etc. will be accepted.
• One BEE per person.
• While supplies last.
• You must follow the “what you need to do” steps above and use hashtags as indicated for your entry to be accepted.
• All entries will be moderated – we're trying to have some but fun but please remember to keep it appropriate.

Camera specs:
4K, 12MP photos up to 30 frames per second, built-in Wi-Fi, SuperView™ and Auto Low Light modes. Waterproof to 131’/40m. 

 By Philip Keeley, Principal Systems Engineer at Aerohive Networks

Colleagues often ask why I still work for Aerohive - I have been known to move on when the technology elsewhere becomes more exciting - but the IoT (Internet of Things) has just made Aerohive more relevant than ever before.

There are many blogs and youtube clips explaining IoT, so no need for another one here. But I do want to focus on one particular area - security. Many of the resources on IoT brush over the physical tedium of actually connecting these myriad of devices to the network. The presumption is that it just works, so move onto how your internet enabled tennis racket will make your day better.

Yet, the physical connection cannot be overlooked. If one assumes Wi-Fi will be the main connection mechanism (not the only one - but a significant one) then the obvious connection-security is a pre-shared key - as certificates or user credentials - which will be tough to enter into a Wi-Fi lightbulb. 

In the home space, everyone uses a single wireless network and populates the same pre-shared key and everything works. The concern here is the proliferation of the 'key' to your network. So what happens when you dispose of the Internet-enabled 'thing'? Do you also throw out your network security? Consider the wider concern as these Internet devices move into the office space. Will there be a single pre-shared key, which allows free-and-easy Internet access? Or will there be several different wireless networks for every type of device ... such as a WLAN for lightbulbs, a different one for Building Management, etc?

So why Aerohive? Enter Private Pre-Shared Key (PPSK), which gives Aerohive customers the ability to have thousands of different pre-shared keys on a single network with different connection profiles, including firewalls and VLANs. This makes Aerohive PPSK perfect for the Internet of things. 

Take a single SSID with 'Private' Pre-Shared Keys - one group of keys for guest access or BYOD. Meanwhile, another group of keys could be for building management with a very controlled firewall policy, which only allows the building systems to make changes, rather than anyone else connected to the network. Lighting systems could be controlled by yet another group of keys, which may have their own firewall policy allowing corporate users to adjust the lighting in the meeting rooms, but not in the corridors. All of this is possible with Aerohive's PPSK (Private Pre Shared Key) technology.

So bring on the Internet of Things - Aerohive has a great solution!

Aerohive is enabling retailers of all sizes to use mobility to increase productivity, engage customers and grow their businesses.

Check out this video to learn more about Retail Made Personal from Aerohive:

If you're familiar with Aerohive, you’ve probably seen our mascot, the Aerohive BEE, around. We’re making the Aerohive BEE a celebrity AGAIN in our Twitter contest - the #SelfieBEE.

All you have to do is tweet #SelfieBEE photos of the Aerohive BEE for a chance to win one of two GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition cameras. You must include the #SelfieBEE hashtag and mention @Aerohive to enter.

1. Upload a photo of the Aerohive BEE using the hashtag #SelfieBEE on Twitter or Instagram.
2. You must include the #SelfieBEE hashtag and @Aerohive for your entry to register
3. Even better if you snap a pic of yourSELF with the BEE for a true #SelfieBEE! 
4. Kick back and relax: The winners will be chosen at random and announced the week of July 21, 2014.
5. Spread the word and enter as many times as you'd like! 
6. You’ve entered the easiest contest ever!
7. Need an Aerohive BEE? Submit your BEE request here.

You only entered once? Enter as many times as you'd like through July 19, 2014

Two winners will be chosen at random and announced the week of July 21, 2014

As with all contests, some rules apply: 

• Bee requests will be sent to a business email address to be eligible. No personal email e.g. @yahoo, @gmail, etc. will be accepted.
• One BEE per person.
• While supplies last.
• You must follow the “what you need to do” steps above and use hashtags as indicated for your entry to be accepted.
• All entries will be moderated – we're trying to have some but fun but please remember to keep it appropriate.

Camera specs:
4K, 12MP photos up to 30 frames per second, built-in Wi-Fi, SuperView™ and Auto Low Light modes. Waterproof to 131’/40m. 

Join Infonetics and Aerohive Networks for a Live, Interactive Webinar

Shifting to the Cloud: Managing Next-Gen WLANs

Date: Tuesday, July 22   

Time: 10:00 PT / 1:00 ET / 17:00 UTC  |  Duration: 45 min + Q&A

Overview

WLANs have traditionally been managed via hardware-based controllers on the enterprise premise. This approach has served the market well in the past, but as WLANs go mainstream, one size does not fit all. This webinar takes a detailed look at the new alternatives that are available, from services to software to embedded controllers, examining the pros and cons and helping users determine which options are appropriate for their situation.

Who Should Attend

Enterprise network managers, network architects, IT managers, CIOs, the media, and financial analysts.

Attendees Receive 802.11ac Access Point

Qualified attendees of this webinar will receive an 802.11ac access point, compliments of Aerohive. You can find qualification rules for receiving the access pointhere.

Key Topics for Discussion

• Mobility challenges facing enterprises today
• How 802.11ac is creating new bottlenecks
• Why management is a necessity for wireless networks
• A review of WLAN management options available
• New approaches coming to market
• Answers to audience questions during live Q&A

How to register: Visit here.

Speakers

• Matthias Machowinski, Directing Analyst, Enterprise Networks and Video,Infonetics Research
• Abby Strong, Director of Product Marketing, Aerohive Networks
• JoAnne Emery, Event Director, Infonetics Research (Moderator)

Oberto Brands is the second largest producer of beef jerky in the nation, with over 400 varieties of dried meat products and snack sausages. The company recently opened a second production facility to meet nationwide demand. When Oberto was not able to rely on its existing Cisco network for wireless operations in its warehouse and production facilities, costs began to rise and production was affected. Oberto urgently needed to procure a comprehensive wireless solution for enterprise operations.

Trading in its controllers for a reliable and robust network from Aerohive, Oberto can now manage and track inventory as well as take advantage of additional features on the hand held mobile scan devices in its warehouses. 

For all the details, check out the full case study here.

Another year, another challenge. 2014 is the year of Gigabit Wi-Fi. With the development of 802.11ac, wireless LANs surpass the Gigabit speed barrier. 

Only ten years ago, the idea of Wi-Fi as the primary access technology was little more than a vision. The WLANs of that period were designed primarily as convenience networks and were not well-suited for the operation of mission-critical applications and access. Over time, WLANs became increasingly pervasive and architectures evolved to better manage and contain WLAN traffic.  

802.11n introduced high throughput, enhanced methods to overcome interference, and the level of reliability needed to make Wi-Fi into a foundation-layer infrastructure technology. WLANs had become required everywhere in organizations. 

The 802.11ac standard has arrived, promising throughput of up to 1Gb per device. However, optimizing your mobile users' application experience requires much more than high speed Wi-Fi, and choosing the wrong network architecture can cost you now and into the future. Download the 2014 WLAN Buyer's Guide to understand what Gigabit Wi-Fi really means for your network and how you should approach your adoption of next-gen mobile networking.

We will discuss how the landscape of your network has changed with the introduction of mobile working, learning, purchasing, point of care etc., and what further impact you can expect from BYOD and the Internet of Things in the near future. The paper will help you to discover what your key requirements should be from a technology, 10 things that your wireless LAN should do for you, and how to effectively use the RFP process to select the best solution for your needs. 

Now it's your turn. Go ahead and share here in comments, or on our customer community, what Gigabit Wi-Fi initiatives you have underway.

Download the 2014 WLAN Buyer's Guide here.

The Welsh government recently set aside millions of funds dedicated to enabling digital learning. When the County and City of Swansea (CCS) in South Wales took on a 1:1 tablet rollout for its students across 102 schools, it realized the existing Aruba network was limited. To meet the needs of the tens of thousands of students and staff, CCS turned to Aerohive for a controller-less solution that provided a simple way to manage complex security and access policies.

CCS has deployed over 1,600 wireless access points and plans to expand the network in the coming year to the 18 city libraries serving over 200,000 residents across the County.

With the infrastructure in place to support digital learning, the benefits are emerging. More information about the deployment can be found here.

Auto-Provisioning allows administrators to quickly deploy Aerohive devices. With Auto-Provisioning enabled, once an Aerohive device communicates to HiveManager, the device will receive the latest configuration and firmware automatically. This significantly shortens the time to value for an Aerohive deployment.

Check out this video by Aerohive Principal Systems Engineer, Rich Korb, to learn more:

Interested in other "how to" videos  and blogs about Aerohive products? Watch How to configure a PPSK or read all technical training blogs here.

If you're familiar with Aerohive, you’ve probably seen our mascot, the Aerohive BEE, around. We’re making the Aerohive BEE a celebrity AGAIN in our Twitter contest - the #SelfieBEE.

All you have to do is tweet #SelfieBEE photos of the Aerohive BEE for a chance to win one of two GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition cameras. You must include the #SelfieBEE hashtag and mention @Aerohive to enter.

1. Upload a photo of the Aerohive BEE using the hashtag #SelfieBEE on Twitter or Instagram.
2. You must include the #SelfieBEE hashtag and @Aerohive for your entry to register
3. Even better if you snap a pic of yourSELF with the BEE for a true #SelfieBEE! 
4. Due to popular demand, we will be extending the #selfiebee contest and giving away 2 more GoPro cameras.
5. New Winners will be announced on July 31, 2014
6. Previous winners listed here. Congratulations @KawLibrarian& @ScottinOkla!
7. Spread the word and enter as many times as you'd like! 
8. You’ve entered the easiest contest ever!
9. Need an Aerohive BEE? Submit your BEE request here.

You only entered once? Enter as many times as you'd like through July 31, 2014

Two winners will be chosen at random and announced after July 31, 2014

As with all contests, some rules apply: 

• Bee requests will be sent to a business email address to be eligible. No personal email e.g. @yahoo, @gmail, etc. will be accepted.
• One BEE per person.
• While supplies last.
• No guarantee of delivery by contest deadline.
• You must follow the “what you need to do” steps above and use hashtags as indicated for your entry to be accepted.
• All entries will be moderated – we're trying to have some but fun but please remember to keep it appropriate.

Camera specs:
4K, 12MP photos up to 30 frames per second, built-in Wi-Fi, SuperView™ and Auto Low Light modes. Waterproof to 131’/40m. 

The City of Douglasville is located 20 miles outside of Atlanta and enjoys a vibrant community life, with an active downtown and several parks with community centers and large sports complexes. Although the City always wanted to offer public Wi-Fi, this became a reality when Google provided a grant as part of its community outreach program.

To enable municipal Wi-Fi spread across 100 acres, the City had to make considerations for peak use times during large events, and troubleshoot issues of elevation, interference and distance.

Aerohive was chosen for a robust and reliable solution, and many enterprise features enable the City to monitor and control the network in ways it didn't think were possible.

To learn about the creative ways the community uses the public Wi-Fi, click here.

Tyndale Christian School, located in Sydney, Australia has over 700 students, but only had Wi-Fi in two of its 18 buildings, with poor and unreliable coverage. For a school offering education to students from preschool to grade 12 with a vision to move to a 1:1 environment, it was desperate for a new network solution. 

The School evaluated HP, Ruckus and Aruba and chose Aerohive for scalability, ease of management and cost. Tyndale equipped classrooms and other high priority areas quickly, and can add APs as needed for future growth. 

To learn more about the details of the Aerohive deployment, read the case study here.

The random-drawing portion of our #SelfieBEE contest has come to an end and we are no longer accepting submissions. Congratulations @KawLibrarian, @ScottinOkla, @Ward864Ward, and @thejamesyg each for winning a HERO3+ Black Edition camera in our random drawing!

This also means we have reached the final phase of our #SelfieBEE contest: Time to vote! 

1. To cast your vote for an entry, visit the contest page here and click "view entries" to see all submissions.
2. Find your favorite submission, click on it, and then click "vote."
3. Have a submission and want to recruit votes? No problem! Tell people to visit this page and vote!
4. Need a voting-page link to share? Here you go: http://on.fb.me/1wW7IZE
5. Recruit on Facebook, Twitter ... anywhere you'd like. 

As with all contests, some rules apply: 

• Submissions are closed. Final submission was July 31, 2014. No new entries accepted.
• You must follow the “what you need to do” steps above as indicated to participate.
• Submission with the most votes wins a GoPro camera. 
• Voting is open through 5pm PST Thursday August 7, 2014
• Vote winner will be announced on Friday August 8, 2014
• There is only one winner, no runner up. 

Camera specs:
4K, 12MP photos up to 30 frames per second, built-in Wi-Fi, SuperView™ and Auto Low Light modes. Waterproof to 131’/40m. 

When consumer-grade access points became unreliable and difficult to manage, North Carolina School District Rowan-Salisbury began to investigate better options. As a large district with over 20,000 students, BYOD was exploding at all 35 schools in the District and the schools also had plans in place for a 1:1 digital learning program using iPads. 

After considering solutions from Meraki and Meru, the District turned to Aerohive for a controller-less network solution that was easy to manage and cost-effective. One strong selling point for Aerohive was the Bonjour Gateway feature that enabled the school to manage the large amount of Apple devices and easily use AirPlay and AirPrint in classrooms.

To learn more about how Aerohive enabled Rowan-Salisbury to expand digital learning, see the full case study here.

The random-drawing portion of our #SelfieBEE contest has come to an end and we are no longer accepting submissions. Congratulations @KawLibrarian, @ScottinOkla, @Ward864Ward, and @thejamesyg each for winning a HERO3+ Black Edition camera in our random drawing!

This also means we have reached the final phase of our #SelfieBEE contest: Time to vote! 

1. To cast your vote for an entry, visit the contest page here and click "view entries" to see all submissions.
2. You must like Aerohive's Facebook page to vote.
3. Find your favorite submission, click on it, and then click "vote."
4. Have a submission and want to recruit votes? No problem! Tell people to visit this page and vote!
5. Need a voting-page link to share? Here you go: http://bit.ly/1m4ZlJx
6. Recruit on Facebook, Twitter ... anywhere you'd like. 

As with all contests, some rules apply: 

• You must follow the “what you need to do” steps above as indicated to participate.
• Submission with the most votes wins a GoPro camera. 
• Voting has been extended and is open through Sunday August 31, 2014
• Vote winner will be announced on Monday Sept 1, 2014
• There is only one winner, no runner up. 
• Get the vote out!
• Good luck everyone!

Camera specs:
4K, 12MP photos up to 30 frames per second, built-in Wi-Fi, SuperView™ and Auto Low Light modes. Waterproof to 131’/40m. 

In this connected age, the newest threat facing enterprises isn’t the fastest, most fabulous new smartphone or the coolest powerful laptop. 

It’s the printer. Or the wearable in your employees’ pockets, the smart light fixtures, or even the badge access system. 

More and more devices are connecting to the network to increase visibility, develop an ecosystem of applications, and report data back to analytics engines that process hundreds of gigabits of data every day. And the one thing they all have in common? They are using Wi-Fi to do it. 

Employers used to be able to design a network by saying “I’ll need 2 ports per cubical and therefore I’ll need 300 switch ports for building A”. It was very straightforward and the biggest problem was related to how to keep employees from installing unsanctioned software on their desktop machine.

We’ve come a long way since then, first seeing the shift to non-ethernet devices connecting to the network, then with BYOD driving that number to 3-5 devices per user, the prevalence of “Shadow IT” apps on all these mobile devices, and now with the emergence of “Bring Your Own Thing” - BYOT. 

Internet of Things: How many connected devices?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a fundamental shift in networking. There is no way to plan “x devices per user” because all sorts of non-user devices will be connecting and sharing information. Most of them will not support username/password authentication, so identifying the type of device, who needs access to it, and what it can do on the network can be an overwhelming challenge when using legacy network equipment.

This is where a highly-intelligent, distributed architecture with a focus on securing and connecting devices really comes into play. My next several blogs will go through how Aerohive is the vendor to help your business connect, scale, and secure all the Internet of Things devices showing up on your network. 

Let’s start with secure connectivity. 

Assuming the majority of IoT devices will not have complex Wi-Fi management, most will likely require a pre-shared key rather than support a username/password for WPA2-Enterprise.

Aerohive has a unique feature that allows users or administrators to generate a Private Pre-Shared Key (PPSK) to ensure that each device is securely connected to the Wi-Fi network. More importantly, using PPSK, administrators can create groups of keys that define what permissions should be assigned to a device connecting with that key - for example, the “printer group” may assign a device to the printer VLAN, limit access via firewall policy to limited outbound destinations, and rate limit access to ensure there is no misuse.

This means that administrators will not need to configure multiple SSIDs just to support different types of devices - assuring the Wi-Fi connectivity for all users and devices will be improved simply due to available airtime! :-). 

Aerohive is prepared to support the IoT movement - and the more devices, the better. So let’s get moving and BYOT!  

Today's corporate networks are becoming increasingly complex. With increased mobility and Internet usage, virtualized applications, cloud services, data backup from distributed sites, and security and application updates, the network handles more tasks than ever before. The growing number of network endpoints with the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) phenomenon adds to the challenge of effectively deploying and managing a wireless network in today's enterprise. Moreover, lean budgets, geographically distributed deployments and, in some cases, a lack of onsite RF expertise pose additional potential obstacles for network managers. 

Enterprise networks today commonly find the following challenges to capacity, density, and aggregate throughput: 

• BYOD and mobility
• Increased number of connected ‘things’
• Bandwidth hungry apps

In recent years, alternative architectures have emerged to cope with the performance challenge. Among those alternative architectures are delivery models where control can reside in the cloud or be distributed throughout deployed APs. 

IDC’s Technology Spotlight addresses how newer cloud-managed distributed control network architectures, such as those offered by Aerohive, address these challenges as enterprise WLAN use cases become more diverse. 

Note to readers: I’m writing a series about iBeacon. This is a good first post in the series, explaining why it’s important, and trying to blend it in with "wireless expertise."

Over its history, Wi-Fi has continually reinvented itself so that it is intimately related to many other developments in networking. When I first started working with Wi-Fi, the name “Wi-Fi” didn’t even exist, and people were amazed by a demonstration that showed a live wireless connection to the Internet. (Times have changed a bit since then!)

From our perch at Aerohive, we see many of the developments in wireless networking, and one of the trends we’re tracking right now is personalized location services. You might have heard this referred to as iBeacons after one of the most talked-about methods of location-based application development.

iBeacons are small, often battery-powered transmitters that enable a device to learn what is nearby. Arrived at your restaurant? Your phone will check you in automatically, and may even send your pre-ordered meal to the kitchen. In a museum standing in front of an exhibit? Your phone can pull up far more in-depth information on the artifacts than can be put on any sign. Need to find your car in a parking garage? When you get close, your phone can help you home in on the car.

I’m planning a series about how iBeacons work, based in part on all that I’ve learned writing my upcoming book on the topic.

• What do you use iBeacons for?
• How do iBeacons interact with devices?  
• What kinds of capabilities do iBeacons add to applications?
• (And probably even, why Aerohive is showing an interest in iBeacons)  

If you’re interested in iBeacons and have questions, leave a comment on our customer community, HiveNation, and we’ll work the answer into an upcoming series. To find the conversation on the community, click here.

We are known for doing some fun stuff here at the Hive, but our latest event - Aerohive's first "Family Movie Night" - ranks as downright adorable.

Earlier this month, parents and their "Lil BEEs" gathered at Aerohive HQ in Sunnyvale to enjoy a night of movie-watching and treats. To say our movie party was well received is an understatement, when you consider we only gave a week's notice and life is, well, busy!

But we got 50 takers, all of whom had a ball. 

Here's how we roll on Family Movie Night:

• We watched two movies: “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Goonies” ... shown on multiple screens. Very professional!
• HerBEE the giant BEE made a surprise appearance.
• We ate pizza and salad.
• A popcorn machine cranked out popcorn non-stop.
• Everyone received “BEE bucks” when they entered the room to buy candy for the movie (Milk Duds, M&M's, Mike and Ike ... all the old-time favorites.)
• Chairs were set up, but several kiddos simply settled in on blankets, sleeping bags, and bean bags on the floor.

It was loads of fun for the kids ... grown ups too! Here's what some pint-sized attendees had to say:

"I liked it because I got to sit on the giant bean bags. I liked it because that movie is my favorite ("How to Train Your Dragon.") I loved the popcorn! " - Aaliyah, 8 years.

"They had fresh popcorn and I liked that they had two screens! I liked it a lot because there was pizza and sodas." - Zander, 6 years.

"Can I come to your office everyday…… it was super fun - The Goonies movie, candy, popcorn and I got my own movie ticket!!! It was really fun." - Annika, 5 1/2 years.

"We laughed a lot and my li'l one enjoyed herself and absolutely enjoyed the food.” - Water cooler conversation relaying how much one 8-year-old daughter enjoyed Family Movie Night. 

One child asked if we could do this again next week. Well, maybe not next week because other fun events are being planned, but we will do Family Movie Night again for sure. 

Like many schools feeling the effects of severe budget cuts, Snowline Joint Unified School District only had a hardwired, interconnected network infrastructure in place with zero wireless access. It also was facing state mandates for converting to online testing and wanted to deploy more devices in classrooms for digital learning. 

Winning out over Aruba, Aerohive was chosen for its cloud-enabled controller-less Wi-Fi. The school now can support Common Core online testing, with plenty of flexibility for future growth. 

Snowline is also using Aerohive's StudentManager to monitor and control what students are accessing and viewing in the classroom.

For more about the deployment, check out the case study here.