The entire IT (or NOC) staff, including Help Desk, network engineers, security team, and executives.

AirWave provides custom views and reports for multiple classes of users -- putting all the information they need to do their jobs at their fingertips. The software supports multiple administrative roles, allowing you to tailor each user's level of access and permissions according to his specific job function.

AirWave places special emphasis on usability for the Help Desk staff providing first-line support to your wireless users -- enabling the Help Desk to diagnose and resolve most problems without escalation -- resulting in up to 75% reductions in problem resolution time.

Network engineers

Proprietary Element Management Systems are designed primarily for configuration management -- and are used mostly by network engineers. When other IT staff members need information from the system, they typically route the request to the engineers, creating a major support bottleneck in large organizations.

Manages the entire wireless infrastructure, including WiFi (autonomous and thin APs), mesh, WiMax, and more.

Organizations are increasingly using mulitple wireless architectures simultaneously to deliver affordable broadband access everywhere -- 'thin' APs and controllers in a dense campus, 'autonomous APs' in small remote locations, mesh in hard-to-wire areas and outdoors... AirWave supports all these architectures, giving you a single console from which to manage and monitor the entire network.

AirWave's 'Universal Device Support' feature even gives you the ability to monitor critical components of your wired infrastructure (such as RADIUS servers and upstream switched) that affect wireless network perfomance.

Support a limited variety of wireless architectures

Proprietary Element Management Systems often support a limited range of products and architectures -- forcing you to use multiple management consoles as your network becomes larger and more diverse.

Supports multiple generations of wireless hardware simultaneously

AirWave software extends the life of your existing investment in wireless infrastructure by supporting both state-of-the-art products and legacy equipment from the same console. Average customers can extend their hardware lifecycle by 1-2 years with AirWave.

Focus on current-generation product support

Proprietary Element Management Systems from hardware vendors often support only the vendor's recent products. Sometimes, organizations may even need to use separate proprietary management solutions for each product line or generation of equipment.

Supports most leading hardware vendors.

AWMS is a fully vendor-agnostic solution that monitors and configures hardware from leading vendors, including Aruba, Avaya, Cisco (Aironet and Airespace), Colubris, Enterasys, Funkwerk, HP ProCurve, Intel, Juniper Networks, LANCOM, Nomadix, Proxim, Symbol, Tropos and others. AMP automatically handles all communication with multi-vendor devices, allowing you to monitor and configure diverse networks from the same easy-to-use web console.

Single-vendor product support.

Proprietary Element Management Systems from hardware vendors typically support only that vendors' own hardware -- and sometimes may not even support all of that vendors' product lines.

Flexible architecture scales to support networks with 25,000+ devices from a single console.

The AirWave Master Console provides a single, integrated console for monitoring your entire wireless network -- even when the AirWave software is distributed on multiple servers for maximum scalability.

May require multiple, independent consoles as wireless networks grow.

Many proprietary Element Management Systems are designed to run on a single server only -- and cannot scale when networks consist of many thousands of APs and controllers.

Real-time monitoring views for every user and device on the network

AirWave's detailed monitoring screens allow you to view information on every device and user with a few clicks of the mouse -- for more accurate diagnostics and faster problem resolution.

Limited visibilit, with over-reliance on reports rather than monitoring views

Element Management Systems often do not put critical monitoring information at the fingertips of the Help Desk - forcing them to ask network engineers to generate custom reports to get the data they need to do their jobs.

Historical trend reports dating back 2 years

AirWave provides rich historical reports, enabling you to monitor how network usage, performance, and even roaming patterns have changed over months or years.

Limited availability of historical data

Element Management Systems may retain user and network data for only a few weeks, making it difficult to determine how usage patterns and peformance have changed over time.

Fully integrated visualization and location capabilities

AirWave's fully integrated VisualRF module allows your Help Desk, engineers, and others to track the location of every individual user and device on your network -- and to see accurate RF heatmaps and coverage maps. AirWave's 5.0 software even integrates with Google Earth so you can track your network inventory in physical space.

May require separate location appliances and additional license fees.

Proprietary Element Management Systems sometimes require separate (and costly) location servers to track user and device locations -- or don't provide this functionality at all.

Automated, custom compliance audits to eliminate misconfigured devices.

Leading industry analysts see misconfigured devices as the #1 source of wireless security incidents. The AirWave software audits device configurations continually to alert you if any device configuration does not match your policy - and allows you to determine what types of configuration errors should generate high-priority alarms so you don't receive hundreds of false positive alerts. The AirWave software can even 'automatically 'repair' misconfigured devices to restore the proper settings.

May require manual workflows to audit individual device configurations

Proprietary Element Management Systems may not provide an automated, network-wide configuration audit capability -- requiring you to initiate audits and manually interpret the results.

Rogue AP detection via both wired and wireless scans

AirWave's RAPIDS module uses a combination of wireless and wired network scans to identify and locate unauthorized rogue APs on your network. AirWave's expertise in multi-vendor device discovery enable the software to accurately detect even rogues that are not in range of your authorized APs or sensors.

Typically rely on wireless scans (and sensors) for rogue detection

Proprietary Element Management Systems typically incorporate some form of wireless rogue scanning using your APs and/or sensors. These solutions are less effective in identifying rogues that are not within RF range of a managed AP -- such as in small remote offices.