PowerCloud Systems, which provides cloud-based network management of what it calls “enterprise-Wi-Fi-as-a-service” without an on-site network controller, is ramping up its activities with a multi-tenant Wi-Fi solution and a new partner program.
The company said the TenantWiFi product is aimed at multi-dwelling units, as well as the hospitality and retail markets, and is “intended for deployments where multiple individual parties demand their own private networks, but where a shared public access infrastructure makes sense for cost and roaming service reasons.”
PowerCloud CEO and founder Jeff Abramowitz said that although the company’s platform has been used by other vendors to come to market, PowerCloud “has not really been visible as the brand to networking resellers or to edge customers until very recently.”
The company announced a customer win at the Nickelodeon Suites Resort in Orlando earlier this month, where 222 of its access points were installed. Abramowitz said that PowerCloud is more active outside the U.S. and works with a major European carrier, but is now moving to take advantage of the momentum in Wi-Fi.
For the TenantWiFi product, Abramowitz described a use case of a mall, where multiple tenants want Wi-Fi access both for business purposes and for their customers, but want more features such as firewalls, passwords for individual businesses. Abramowitz said that PowerCloud’s solution “allows us to offer all the trappings of private networks for each tenant.” He added that in, say, a national chain of restaurants the cloud-based management of the sites means that after one log-on, a visitor is automatically re-authenticated on the company’s Wi-Fi when he or she visits another of the chain’s locations anywhere in the country.
“That’s the beauty of the cloud,” Abramowitz said.
He added that PowerCloud’s product can allow businesses to access intelligence about their customers as well — such as the ability to ask them to log in via Facebook or other social media, so the business can send a coupon on the customer’s birthday. Regularly recurring visits can be tracked as well, he said, so that a hair salon could send a coupon to a regular customer who is overdue for a cut.
“It’s really about turning Wi-Fi into a customer relationship management platform,” Abramowitz said.
He also said that assisted living centers and religious institutions are turning to PowerCloud for Wi-Fi, because of the reduced cost compared to traditional enterprise Wi-Fi installations.
