The Access Blog
Press: Q&A: Access Networks’ Hagai Feiner on Live Monitoring, Cybersecurity and eero
Categorized: Press | Tagged: CEPro cybersecurity eero Hagai Feiner live monitoring recurring monthly revenue RMR Roy Beiser | July 1, 2017
CEPRO.COM
MAY 3, 2017
Access Networks has been making major moves in the ever-changing networking space including providing RMR opportunities, partnering with Cenersys to develop Access Networks Live Monitoring, and adding eero to its product offerings for integrators.
CE Pro caught up with Access Networks founder and CEO Hagai Feiner, who says the company’s latest initiatives build upon the foundation of enterprise-grade networks for residential applications.
CE Pro: Are Access Networks’ recent moves — like diversifying systems, adding product lines, providing more RMR opportunities — part of a business roadmap, or response to the evolving marketplace?
Feiner: The new products are part of a long-term vision for the company, although we certainly monitor trends in the CI marketplace. As an example, we have been working with technology partner Cenersys for over a year on the development of Access Networks Live Monitoring, refining all facets of the system.
Live Monitoring is a big differentiator for Access Networks and thus for our integration specialists — we are the only network solutions provider that takes ownership of the network on behalf of the integrator — we control what is deployed in the home and work as the integrator’s highly qualified IT department to create, monitor and maintain the ultimate solution tailored for each client.
We have also been looking carefully at cybersecurity. Access Networks has decided to take a stand in the form of an aggressive long-term strategy to protect ourselves, our integrators and their customers.
Part of this strategy has been to add a specialist who will address cybersecurity on numerous fronts, including an initiative to educate integrators so they can effectively protect themselves from the many real-world cyber threats that could be perilous to their businesses and their clients.
What does the company’s alliance with Cenersys provide?
With Access Networks Live Monitoring we are able to tailor a network and RMR package that is ideal for each client, leveraging the depth of experience that Cenersys has accrued building enterprise-grade monitoring solutions.
Having the capacity to tailor each system is critical because if you think about it, the concepts of cybersecurity and remote monitoring are really at odds with each other — some clients may want a bigger emphasis on convenience, with someone to watch over every aspect of their digital environment, where another client might make security their top priority and lock down their system like a vault. Many will find balance somewhere on middle ground.
How will you help dealers with the concept of selling secure networks?
We believe that the time is now for the CI industry to organize efforts to ensure network security for integrators and their clients. By bringing Roy Beiser onboard, someone who dedicated over 20 years to network and information security at Intel Corporation, we now have the capacity to establish the highest IT and cybersecurity standards in order to become an authoritative resource for integrators.
It is our plan to develop training programs that point to best practices benefitting the entire CEDIA community. In terms of selling secure networks, identity theft and/or compromised data can be an unmitigated disaster for anyone — I think an appropriate degree of cybersecurity tailored to each client would be fairly easy to justify.
What impact will Access Networks’ addition of eero have?
eero and expanding the magnitude and capability of our systems from there.
eero is a premium Wi-Fi solution that features a sleek industrial design and advanced wireless mesh capability along with an intuitive app that delivers fast, reliable Wi-Fi for the home — and eero is more affordable than enterprise-grade solutions. Over-the-air software updates give customers new features, performance improvements, and important security updates.
Integrators will appreciate the opportunities created by eero — and they can establish themselves as network solutions providers with clients who may choose an upgrade path down the road.
Additionally, eero offers direct support to integrators so that clients receive premium service should there be any questions or guidance required to optimize the system.
How can Access Networks ensure quality of service as dealers add bandwidth-intensive technologies such as 4K over IP to systems?
4K over IP video is indeed a significant burden on a network infrastructure, in fact most manufacturers of video over IP solutions do not recommend sharing the same network switches for both data and video content unless those switches are capable of extremely high bandwidth, which is a perfect example of why an Access Networks solution is a wise investment.
Our networks, which are under-utilized by design to allow scalability, will support countless new technologies, enabling integrators to be confident in the network as well as the support from our team when selling upgrades.