Machine learning requires mounds of data to be able to characterize problems, craft and apply fixes, Mojo Networks CEO tells Wi-Fi industry.

Mojo Networks’ data is really big. That’s a critical component of its self-healing networks. Because when it comes to getting things done with artificial intelligence, size does matter.

How big? Mojo CEO Rick Wilmer told the audience at the Wi-Now industry event in Redwood City, Calif., that the company’s platform is managing 50 million Wi-Fi connections per week. Those connections are being made on half a million active access points.

“The amount of data we have access to is mind-bending,” he said.

Wilmer said that a perfect storm of capabilities has come together to make self-healing networks a reality: effectively limitless cloud storage and compute, fast wireless networking and powerful microprocessors inside wireless access points.

“This next generation of cloud Wi-Fi is focused on new use cases, and making networks run better,” he said. “We can now do things that even 10 years we wouldn’t have imagined were possible.”

Scale, Wilmer said, is critical to spotting issues. An on-premise IT manager may not recognize an unusual performance problem because the network has experienced only one or two occurrences. Mojo’s machine learning algorithms, meanwhile, characterize problems, determine what’s responsible for the degradation and then restore the network to full force.

Despite a rapid growth in data from existing deployments as well as traffic coming from new customers, visits to Cognitive UI, the platform’s management dashboard, are declining. Wilmer was alarmed when he first saw that a month ago. So the company polled customers to find out why.

As it happens, Wilmer had nothing to worry about:

“The answer from customers was, ‘everything’s just working. So why would I look at the UI? I only look at the UI if I have a problem to solve.’”

That poses an interesting question: could we get to the point where dashboards go the way of the dinosaur?

“I think that potential is real,” he said.

In addition to keeping the network humming, big data will also fuel new applications, he said. On Mojo’s roadmap is a user community around the data that would enable IT administrators to benchmark network performance against similar organizations.

“So if I was an IT administrator of a K-12 school campus with 500 to 1,000 students, I could go to the Mojo community, and see how my DNS latency compares against my peers when running Google G Suite for Education.”

That would give community members the ability to help each other – with real data in real time to back it up.

“To me that takes the concept of community to a whole different level,” he said.

Indeed, it’s not just the amount of data that’s mind-bending. It’s also the new applications the data makes possible.

When it comes to enterprise security, people are the weakest link. They give away their passwords by clicking on phishing emails. And by storing them on Post-It Notes and spreadsheets. And by making them easy to guess with passwords like ‘Password’ and ‘Password123.’

Now, finally, technology is at the point where IT managers can actually dispense with passwords. So the network is secure. And employees get access quickly and painlessly.

Everbody wins! Find out how. Read my latest CIO Magazine column HERE.

Facebook’s latest crisis of trust has landed the mega-social network at a crucial crossroads, and its relevancy just may be hanging in the balance. To survive, CEO Mark Zuckerberg needs to snag a page from James Burke’s playbook. Burke, the late CEO of Johnson & Johnson, successfully navigated his company through the Tylenol scare 35 years ago.

Find out how – and see what lessons there are for Facebook. Read my latest CIO Magazine column HERE.

Have you ever faced a purchasing decision so weighty and daunting that you delayed or avoided it altogether?

I have a name for the phenomenon. I call it “Threshold Syndrome,” or TS. People with TS know that what they want is waiting for them on the other side of the proverbial door. But the gravity of the decision keeps them from passing through. They worry that the cost of making a bad choice could be life-altering. So they linger in the doorway.

IT buyers know TS all too well. They typically come down with it when they take on new network deployments. Because they know that once they pull the trigger, they’ll be locked into a vendors’ system. Which means that they go as the vendor goes. If the vendor raises prices for new hardware or tacks on maintenance fees for new services, then they pay more. And if the vendor is late with new hardware, then the state-of-the-network lags.

Fortunately for network decision-makers, an antidote for TS is gaining momentum in the marketplace: open Wi-Fi. By giving IT the power to mix and match compatible hardware, software and services from different vendors, open Wi-Fi effectively breaks down big deployment decisions into smaller, more palatable choices. If the access points turn out to be disappointing, for example, IT can turn to a different supplier for upgrade and expansion.

Naturally, prices will come down and quality will rise once vendors are forced to compete at every turn. It’s one reason FeibusTech is forecasting growth in enterprise Wi-Fi deployments to accelerate.

Open Wi-Fi is gaining steam in the marketplace. At the Open Compute Project’s annual US Summit this week, in fact, the 3,000 or so attendees and exhibitors will be treated to Wi-Fi connectivity by way of the first-ever all-open, large-scale deployment, courtesy Mojo Networks and Edgecore Networks. It’s a significant, if symbolic, milestone in the legitimacy of open Wi-Fi.

And, in the process, we’re one step closer to stamping out TS in the enterprise.

Facebook founded the Open Compute Project seven years ago with a vision of building powerful, cost-efficient datacenters and networks. So imagine how demotivating it would have been for attendees and exhibiters at the OCP’s US Summit next week in San Jose to be forced to connect to the internet over pricey, proprietary Wi-Fi networks.

Two OCP members decided that was unacceptable, and decided to do something about it. So together, Mojo Networks and Edgecore Networks built the first large large-scale open Wi-Fi network for the 3,000 Summit attendees and exhibitors, spanning 75,000 square feet of the San Jose Convention Center. Mojo’s cloud-managed suite, Cognitive WiFi, is serving as the network’s operating system for Edgecore’s access points.

Now that’s motivation!

Don’t get enough sleep? You’re not alone. One third of us don’t get the sleep we need to let our mind and body recover from today, and to get us ready for tomorrow.

Sleep tech is coming of age this year. Read about it in my latest USA Today column.

Remote patient monitoring is taking off, driven in part by a desire to improve care and in part by necessity to help ease the nation’s growing healthcare burden Many healthcare systems, as a consequence, are adding remote patient monitoring programs to their offerings.

Decision-makers at healthcare systems not only need to choose which connected devices to include in kits. More importantly, they need to select a platform to engage patients, collect the data and transmit it securely back to the EHR.

FeibusTech has produced a research brief, commissioned by Intel, to help those guide decision-makers through the process. The brief, Remote Patient Monitoring Gateways: Key Considerations for Choosing the Best Option for your Remote Patient Monitoring Programs, is now available for download.

A new wave of wearables and companion apps is emerging with the ability to monitor vital signs crucial to spotting heart problems, giving us and our doctors powerful new weapons to fight stroke and heart disease.

It should make for a very exciting 2018. I can’t wait!

Want to know more? Read my latest column in the Tech section of USA TODAY here.

Are we ready to play God? New gene-editing tools are sparking an urgent debate with potentially far-reaching ramifications.

Find out more. Read my column in the Tech section of USA Today.

What a difference a day makes.

I went into the “Road Warrior Challenge” that Samsung Business  sponsored with a few pre-set expectations. I knew at the outset, for example, that I’d lightened my load with the new Galaxy Book. By swapping out my old tablet, laptop and their respective power supplies – the latter an old-style “brick” – for Samsung’s brand-new 2-in-1 notebook, I shed more than two pounds from my overstuffed, chiropractor-friendly backpack.

I also knew that I’d be pulling out the sleek, stylish Galaxy Book with pride, because I’d used it enough back in AZ to know it’s an attention getter. And that’s even before I would wow folks by unlocking the notebook with the fingerprint scanner on my Galaxy S8+ smartphone (more on that later)!

And I knew that the Galaxy Book had plenty of giddyap from the built-in 7th-generation Core i5 from Intel. I knew I had all the storage I needed. (I don’t just carry the world on my shoulders courtesy my backpack. I’m also a digital packrat. So I added a 256GB SD card to double the on-board 256GB SD storage capacity. Plenty of room – even for me!)

I got hooked on the accompanying pen before I arrived in NYC for the Challenge. A quick click and my notepad is open and ready for me to write. Very convenient!

Finally, I knew that battery life on the Galaxy Book was good, and charging was quick. So I felt confident I could coast through the daylong Road Warrior Challenge without worrying about whether the Galaxy Book would also make it through.

Indeed, after using the Galaxy Book for a couple weeks at home, I didn’t think there was anything left the Road Warrior Challenge could teach me. But I was wrong. Thanks to the Challenge, I found the Galaxy Book liberating in ways I didn’t expect.

For example, Samsung Flow – the app that enables the cool unlocking-the-notebook-with-your-phone trick – has more than that to offer road warriors like me. Once you use Flow to sign into the Galaxy Book, it automatically checks to see if the notebook has a Wi-Fi connection. If it doesn’t, then it offers up the Galaxy S8 as a mobile hotspot.

I didn’t fully appreciate this feature before the Road Warrior Challenge. Because up until yesterday, I was just roving between my home broadband network and public hot spots at my local haunts. So I was never pining for connectivity. Like I was on the Staten Island Ferry. And in Battery Park. And on the High Line. And even at Samsung 837.

If you’ve never used a notebook with built-in cellular connectivity, then I guarantee you don’t appreciate how liberating it is to hit the internet running every time you open your laptop. Because you don’t appreciate what a hassle it is to open your laptop and enable your smartphone’s hotspot before you can start surfing until you no longer have to do that.

It’s a real game-changer. And Flow’s one-click connectivity is near-cellular quality. Like, really near. It will spoil you. Unless, of course, you’ve already had built-in cellular in a laptop.

Here’s a second, more subtle benefit I’m now hip to, courtesy the Road Warrior Challenge. The power supply is not a brick. It’s a modified USB charger that’s only slightly larger than the one you’re probably using right now to replenish your smartphone. I knew it was going to lighten my load.

But I didn’t know it would fast-charge my Samsung smartphone as well as my Galaxy Book. Which means I can quick-charge both devices, keeping them powered all day, by carrying with me just one USB charger and one cable.

Think about that for a second. That should really enable me to just leave behind my backbreaking pack in the hotel room. Right?

I don’t know. I mean, what if I lost an earbud fitting on the road, and needed a spare? Or if I got something caught in my teeth and needed floss? Or if I tore something and needed duct tape to hold it together?

Yes, I’m serious!

So OK, maybe I’m not ready just yet to ditch my scale-tipping pack. But after the Road Warrior Challenge, at least I’m now able to leave it behind. Sometimes.

That might sound like a baby step. But it’s a big step for me. Thanks, Samsung!

Find out more about the Samsung Road Warrior Challenge. Check out #AskMikeF and @SamsungBizUSA on Twitter.

The new category of whole-home Wi-Fi, or mesh networks, has really shaken up the router market. That’s because it delivers everything consumers want: a network that is easy to set up, effortless to secure and maintain and blankets the home with great coverage to all of the family’s growing collection of devices.

What could be better than that?

Plenty, actually. Qualcomm is now unveiling what I call Mesh Network 2.0, the next generation of whole-home Wi-Fi. The wireless pioneer is improving on existing capabilities and adding new features, including:

• Integrated voice assist, to give hardware vendors the ability to easily extend intelligent speakers like Amazon Echo, Google Home and Microsoft Cortana,
• IoT radios, to enable devices on the Wi-Fi network to interact directly with thermostats, security systems and other smart home devices, and
• Powerline, to help extend wireless networks in homes with walls that block radio waves.

Qualcomm is also making its distributed Self-Organizing Network (SON) technology available for license to internet service providers, so they can add mesh networking to their home gateways.

On the eve of this announcement, I caught up with Rahul Patel, Senior Vice president and General Manager of Qualcomm’s Connectivity business unit. We took a few moments to take stock in how far the industry has come, as well as what lies ahead.

Question: What Qualcomm has done with home Wi-Fi is really commendable, because the market had gotten so out of touch with what consumers needed. Still, it was a risky move to switch gears at a time when the industry was so obsessed with higher peak bandwidth numbers. What gave you the confidence you could be successful?

Answer: Because, as you said, the market had gotten so out of touch. What we’re delivering is so much better suited for what’s happening on home networks today that it was only a matter of time before it became successful.

Still, we are pleasantly surprised, but not shocked, by how fast mesh network systems have come on. And how much consumers were willing to pay to solve their home Wi-Fi problems. It just goes to show you that if you solve real-world problems – rather than just deliver technology – people see the value.

Question: And OEMs are on board now?

Answer: Oh yes, definitely. Sales are growing, new designs continue to be announced. ASPs are rising. And we expect they’re seeing other benefits, too. Support calls and returns are coming down, and that contributes directly to the bottom line.

You know, it’s interesting. The lower support calls has really gotten the attention of the carriers. Many consumers just use the Wi-Fi that’s built into the gateway they get from the cable company or the phone company. Anytime a customer calls them up to solve a Wi-Fi problem, it cuts into their profits.

Question: So that’s why you are offering the carrier-grade SON features for license?

Answer: That’s right. That will really give the carriers a lot of flexibility to offer mesh network bundles – and get to market sooner with their existing hardware designs.

Question: It’s interesting that you’re also announcing integrated voice assist capabilities. Typically, people think of voice assist as something you connect to the network, not something that comes with the network.

Answer: It’s both. The more places in the home you can communicate with your assistant, the more valuable the assistant becomes. So maybe your Echo is in the kitchen. Now, if the router is in the living room, then you can ask Alexa a question there too. And maybe hear the answer through the home theater system.

If you have a mesh node in the bedroom, then it means you can ask Alexa to, say, add shaving cream to the shopping list. Or turn down the thermostat.

Question: That’s another big piece of this announcement, yes?

Answer: Oh yes. Lots of IoT hardware communicates over wireless networks that are completely separate from Wi-Fi. So that’s why we’re adding Bluetooth, 802.15.4 and our own CSRmesh to the home networking platform. That way, you don’t need to worry about buying separate hubs for things like lighting and security. Just connect them right up to the network.

And then you can control them with an app. Or with your voice assistant.

And if you asked your voice assistant to put shaving cream on the shopping list, then it could use the Bluetooth speaker you have in the bedroom to respond.

Question: All of this really does add a whole new layer of interoperability to the home network. When will we start to see Mesh Network 2.0 products, Rahul?

Answer: Watch for them this year!

By offering simple setup, hands-off manageability and high-speed connectivity to all the family’s devices, no matter where they are in the home, whole-home network systems have quickly become the darlings of the consumer Wi-Fi market.

And these are just the first-generation systems. The industry continues to innovate. Read our latest research brief, Whole-Home Network 2.0: The Sea-Change Continues, to learn about more of what’s in store for this hot new segment in the home router market..

The first so-called artificial pancreas systems – wearable devices that take charge of the crucial process of measuring glucose and delivering insulin –  are now beginning to come to market.

That’s welcome news for the nation’s 30 million diabetics, who stand not only to get some relief from the seemingly incessant stream of lancets, test strips and syringes, but also to stay healthier. That’s because an artificial pancreas can keep the disease on a tighter leash than they can, by testing more frequently and delivering more precise insulin doses.

That’s not only important for patients, but could ease strains on the nation’s healthcare system.

Read my entire column in the Tech section of USA Today HERE.