Watch As I Pull A Cloud Managed AP From My Hat!

The biggest underdog ever to present at a Wireless Field Day event had to be Tanaza. When Sebastiano stepped up at WFD3 I don't think most people knew what to expect. Luckily for me, I had spoken with Sebastiano before the event so I was a little more familiar with the purpose and function of the Tanaza product.

In fact, I did a blog post about Tanaza back in July. Since my initial introduction to the solution, which aims to provide cloud-based management for SOHO access points in a vendor-neutral manner, I had hoped to test out the product. Unfortunately, do to some shipping issues and lack of appropriate gear I was not able to do so. After WFD3, Tanaza was kind enough to provide me with a Ubiquiti UniFi AP pre-flashed with Tanaza firmware.

Armed with my new equipment, I set out to finally test out one of the biggest and most important claims made by Tanaza: '[we are] committed to the idea that network management should be simple.' What better way to test this then to record myself as I attempt to get my Tanaza AP up and running without having watched any how-to videos or read any instructions? Here is the result:

A few notes in addition to the video: 

• I did eventually figure out how to add the AP to the map. I would still prefer to just drag and drop though.
• I was hoping the AP would try to validate that the IP address I gave it was already in use. It didn't.

Overall, Tanaza lived up to the claims of being simple to use. Probably a better test would have been to get a non-wireless consultant to do the initial setup but I didn't have any in my toolkit.

Daniel

Disclosure: As stated in this post, the UniFi AP used during this testing was provided by Tanaza. No requirements regarding reviews or endorsements were communicated or agreed to as a result.

My Thoughts After a Chat With the CEO of Tanaza

I recently had the opportunity for a very enlightening, one-on-one discussion and Webex session with the CEO of Tanaza, Sebastiano Bertani. I say enlightening because I really knew nothing more about Tanaza than it existed, and that it offered some form of cloud management for SOHO wireless access points. This post contains a quick summary of what I learned during our conversation and my thoughts on the solution.

What is Tanaza Cloud Control?

Tanaza Cloud Control is a SaaS solution designed to ease the burden on administrators and budgets by securely managing existing SOHO wireless access points without requiring the purchase of additional controllers, AP hardware, or servers. Pricing information can be found on the Tanaza website.

Who is the Target Customer?

I made a point of asking this question specifically because, given that the solution uses SOHO hardware, I felt it would give me a good sense of how much thought has gone into this solution. I'm happy to say that I liked the answer I received. According to Sebastiano, Tanaza is not going after the enterprise. They fully recognize the inherent limitations in using SOHO gear and are on a mission to make wireless networking easy, and affordable for the small business market. (I interpret this to mean organizations with a small handful of APs and no requirements beyond "get me on the Internet".)

This was a good answer because I probably would have stopped listening if he had said that Tanaza Cloud Control, in its current state, was ready to go toe-to-toe with other enterprise wireless vendors.

That's +1 for Tanaza.

What's So Good About Tanaza?

Okay, if you bothered to look at the pricing sheet, you'd probably agree that Tanaza is pretty cheap. But so is Kraft Dinner and it doesn't do jack for my wireless network. So the next logical question should be, what's in it for me? Here is a quick run-down of some of the more interesting features in the current solution:

• Configuration of the wireless setting on a growing list of SOHO access points via an easy-to-navigate web interface.
• The system knows the capabilities of each supported device and will not allow you to push incompatible settings. For example, if you create a second SSID and try to push it to an AP that only supports a single SSID, Tanaza will not allow it. This may not seem like a big deal for people used to enterprise gear, but I think it's pretty impressive for this type of setup.
• No AP or control agent (more on this later) upgrades are required as new features are introduced. All new features on the cloud side of the solution.
• I saw Sebastiano create a new WLAN and push it down to three SOHO APs scattered around Europe in a matter of minutes. He also changed an existing WLAN from WEP to WPA2 in the same amount of time; and all from a single interface. Again, doesn't seem like much for enterprise folks but, it's was pretty cool to see this type of management on geographically distant SOHO APs.

I could go on listing features but I think you get the point. Tanaza does a pretty amazing job of allowing someone to remotely configure wireless networks running on SOHO gear. See the Tanaza website for a full list of features.

Gotchas and What's Missing

Tanaza does a pretty impressive job of offering central management capabilities for SOHO access points. However, there are obvious limitations caused by the use of SOHO hardware and software. Here are few:

• No automated RF management. You can see channels used by neighbouring APs, and manually push channel and power settings down but don't expect Tanaza to make any RF decisions for you.
• Currently, no 802.1X support. Please note that I stated currently. Sebastiano tells me this will be added very soon but for now WEP, WPA-Personal, and WPA2-Personal are all you get.
• For Tanaza to work, you need to install a free software agent on one of the systems on your network. This agent phones home to Tanaza Cloud Control (using TLS) and pulls down configuration changes to be installed on each AP. (More on this below.)
• No usage reporting. Tanaza is currently all about configuration and does not allow you to pull usage statistics or client information.

Coming Soon to a Cloud Near You

I have to say, I really do like this solution because of it's simplicity and because of the fact that the Tanaza team seems to have a good, down-to-earth grasp on where their solution does and does not fit. Do not, however, mistake a sense-of-place for a lack of drive! Perhaps even more impressive than the existing solution, was the future roadmap Sebastian communicated to me. I was informed that the next 12 months will be all about rolling out new features. I'm not sure how much I am allowed to disclose so I will limit my comments to a few key points:

• Remember that agent software I mentioned earlier? Tanaza is currently in beta for custom AP firmware that has the agent built-in; eliminating the need for additional software. They currently have custom firmware for Ubiquiti UniFi APs, and also an OpenWRT module.
• 802.1X support. As I mentioned earlier, they will be rolling out the ability to configure RADIUS authentication very shortly. I think it's important, but at the same time, if they hold true to their target market it might not be required for most customers. This will also cause additional roaming issues since it's still SOHO APs we are talking about.
• Captive Portal configuration. Initially, this will mainly be support for configuring redirects to an external captive portal.

Semi-Closing Thoughts

Unfortunately, I do not currently own a SOHO AP. I've ordered a Ubiquiti UniFi access point and will be testing out Tanaza once it arrives. I specifically purchased a Ubiquiti AP because I'm hoping I can see how Tanaza stacks up against Ubiquiti UniFi Controller Software. Once I've finished playing around with the solution I'll create another post with my overall impression of the solution.

For now, all I can say is Tanaza looks to be an impressively simple solution for anyone who needs to manage a handful of SOHO access points. Let's face it, there are organizations out their that would like to get enterprise gear but just cannot afford it. Tanaza might just be the answer to some of their prayers.

Daniel

Have you had a chance to test Tanaza yet? If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts and opinions on the how well the solution worked, what you liked and disliked, and where you would like to see the product go in the future. Leave you thoughts in the comments section and be sure to share this article with anyone you think might be interested.