ZyXEL's One Network revolutionises network administration for SMBs

ZyXEL Communications today announced the new ZyXEL One Network, the realisation of their vision to provide customers with fast, efficient, truly integrated network device setup and maintenance. This transformative suite of tools and utilities is the product of decades of user-focused innovation, based upon ZyXEL's long held passion for developing solutions that provide an enhanced, more streamlined and efficient user experience.

It encompasses all devices required to operate a small or medium sized network, allowing them to be discoverable configured, reset and rebooted centrally, saving valuable time, eliminating the burden of repetitive tasks, and increasing network availability and efficiency.

ZyXEL is a global leader in broadband networking technology, providing a wide portfolio of wired and wireless network solutions for customers ranging from telecommunications service providers to small- and medium-sized businesses and home users.

"ZyXEL is uniquely positioned to deliver this breakthrough in next generation unified networking. Our comprehensive portfolio of advanced business networking products has been designed and engineered exclusively in-house. This means that, unlike competing brands where products often utilise a wide range of incompatible setup tools, ZyXEL has been able to create a fully integrated suite of customer-focussed solutions with complementary and interoperable setup and installation utilities," said Crowley Wu, AVP of ZyXEL Networking Business Unit. "Our goal has always been to create a seamless, One Network user experience, accelerating and simplifying administrative tasks without the need for expensive and over-specified network management software," Wu concluded.

The ZyXEL One Network Solution unites the full ZyXEL range, from wired and wireless infrastructure to security gateways and firewalls, under a single powerful front-end interface. It comprises three main components. The first component, the ZyXEL ZON utility is a unified network setup and discovery tool which centralises IP setup, firmware upgrade and maintenance tasks, massively reducing the burden of network management. The second key element, ZyXEL Smart Connect centres around the inter-device intelligence of ZyXEL products, allowing auto-discovery of neighbouring devices, remote viewing of their management interface, as well as remote factory reset. The facility can be extended to all LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol) enabled devices from any manufacturer, and is particularly powerful when used with ZyXEL's extensive range of PoE switches, where it gives an instant reading of power draw per port, and allows powered devices to be rebooted remotely. The third crucial component of the ZyXEL One Network user experience is the integration of AP Controller (APC) Technology into their comprehensive commercial Gateway ranges, ensuring affordable, scalable licenced based AP management. The combination of these three elements ensures the increased flexibility, efficiency and scalability at the heart of the One Network vision, along with a dramatically lowered Total Cost of Ownership. It also integrates seamlessly with ZyXEL's Access Point Configurator (ZAC) Utility, enabling centralised configuration of AP settings, including SSID, security and access management.

The ZyXEL One Network experience heralds the beginning of a new, user-focussed model of networking, where repetitive tasks are eliminated and lengthy troubleshooting processes become a thing of the past. This new networking philosophy looks to a future in which ZyXEL continues to engineer more smart connect features into their products, embracing cloud computing, BYOD networking, as well as other new and evolving technologies, to create an ever more seamless One Network experience for their customers.

Nology, a local leading distributor, represents ZyXEL in South Africa and will be exhibiting the newly released Enterprise WiFi and Security Gateways from ZyXEL at the MyBroadband Conference 2014 on 30 September at Gallagher Estate. Nology will also be demonstrating the ZAC and ZON solutions at their stand during the conference.