The Zero-Click Connection Manager

I was in Toronto yesterday speaking at a forum organized by Bell Canada and Trellia Networks. My part of the program was providing an update on wireless in general, and I stressed (as I always do) that an emphasis on cool radio technology and cool devices is often misplaced in an enterprise setting. The core emphasis must instead be instead on management, especially out to the device. It's all about minimizing operating expense, including training, support, carrier service charges, and downtime due to problems. People cost way more than handsets and cellular.

I didn't know too much about Trellia; I'd met with them before and reviewed their Web site. Like all too many startups, they tend to undersell what they really have, to wit: they provide a centrally-managed, centrally-configured, policy-based connection manager for notebooks. Most connection managers, whether for WLANs or WWANs (or both) rely on the user to pick a network, enter the required information (like security keys), and set up the VPN. Trellia automates this process with a zero-click approach - it just works. Users can't connect to unapproved networks, they can't pick the high-cost option when a low-cost service is available, and they can't screw up configuring a VPN. I had the chance to interview one of their customers, Soberman, an accounting firm that is using Trellia's Mobility Platform to serve 150 accountants (no computer types; real accountants) in the field. The installation and training for each took just minutes (it was literally done over lunch) and they've had essentially no support costs since then. Pretty amazing. We videoed this interview (it's so hard to get real end-users to talk about anything, so this was a terrific opportunity) and I'll let you know when this appears on the Web.

Anyway, this is a very different approach to connection management than most of us use, which is via a little tool that enables the sensing and selection of a network, making the actual connection, and sometimes with a little statistics and diagnostics. Speaking of these, I just wrapped up a test of a bunch of Wi-Fi connection managers for Network World. The article will be out shortly, and features a couple of surprises (I was surprised, anyway).

Lastly, Bell is one more CDMA carrier making the leap to LTE, in their case via HSPA. The LTE movement is becoming a juggernaut; we can only hope that maybe, just maybe, we'll have a single, global 4G standard that will work essentially anywhere wide-area wireless is available on this planet. Again, this is not to count WiMAX out, but I'd love to be able to carry just one 4G subscriber unit that works the same way everywhere.

Oh, yes - and a happy Halloween to all!

• Wireless / Mobile
• Bell Canada
• connection managers
• Halloween
• LTE
• Trellia Networks