Remote management makes more sense than ever
The benefits of Zyxel’s Nebula cloud management solution have been brought into sharper focus by the recent Coronavirus outbreak – Kevin Drinkall, EMEA Cloud and Solutions Market Development Manager at Zyxel, explains why he expects IT managers and MSPs to go on using the system after the crisis is over.
The global Coronavirus outbreak has been a challenge of the most serious nature for every country, organisation and individual. It has been enormously disruptive and distressing for everyone – especially for the tens of thousands of people who have become infected. For Zyxel, its channel partners and its customers, the crisis has had a number of impacts. It’s restricted our staff in terms of international travel and compelled us to encourage staff to work at home as much as possible in some countries. It has led to an increase in demand for our products that help to enable smooth and secure connectivity for remote or home working.
It has also triggered increased use of our Nebula cloud management system and this is particularly significant for IT managers and managed services providers. Under present circumstances, remote management makes more sense than ever, and we can only see it growing even more rapidly now that it’s been shown to be so useful under circumstances in which travel, and group gatherings are severely restricted.
Further impetus
Nebula had already been increasing in popularity, and the recent crisis has given adoption further impetus. There are two aspects of Nebula’s functionality that appeal to IT managers and MSPs given the present challenge of trying to minimise movement of staff and visitors as much as possible.
First of all, Nebula’s remote configuration and installation capability. Through Nebula, enabled Zyxel devices can be set-up in advance of shipment and configured automatically when they are connected to the network. A device can be installed locally by on-site, by someone with no technical skills or experience. They may need a little assistance over the phone, but that’s all.
The second is Nebula’s remote management capability. With Nebula, an expert can monitor network devices and tweak settings to enhance performance from a distance including the ability to remotely monitor and make adjustments with a few simple clicks. This capability has seen Nebula growing in popularity with MSP partners and larger customers, and adoption has gathered even greater momentum since the start of the year.
Remote possibilities
While this is by no means entirely down to the Coronavirus outbreak, the crisis has certainly brought the benefits of Nebula into even sharper focus. There are Zyxel switches, access points and security gateways that can be installed and managed using Nebula. Those with the NebulaFlex capability can be switched between on-site, controller-based and cloud-based management, so if customers do want to revert back to managing devices locally, they can. In practice, that hardly ever happens.
We see remote control as the future for network device deployment and management and once the current crisis is over, we expect to see adoption continuing to grow. If you have not yet seen the newly revamped and updated version of Nebula, we’d urge you to contact your nearest Zyxel office or MSP for a demonstration. By the way, there will be no need for you to travel to their offices – or for them to come to you to make that happen; it can all be done remotely.
