Datto is bolstering its MSP networking solution capabilities with an acquisition and launch of new products.
The Norwalk, Conn.-based data protection vendor has acquired Open Mesh, a cloud-based networking solution provider based out of Portland. Open Mesh’s ethernet switching and access point technologies will be combined with the current Datto Networking Appliance to create a new line of Datto networking products.
In its 10 year history, Open Mesh found success selling through the channel. The solution provider has deployed north of 90,000 access points supporting 300,000 networks around the world. The entire Open Mesh team will be joining Datto, and the company will become a Datto subsidiary company maintained in Portland.
“They have developed a very simple and easy to deploy solution for MSPs,” said Matt Richards, Datto product vice president, to CDN. “For example, with your mobile phone, scan an access point, and then plug it in. The mobile phone will add the QR code to the cloud automatically. That’s it. That kind of super fast accelerated deployment is the sort of simplicity and speed deployment efficiency that we are going for with Open Mesh. Their products are tremendously simple to set up, and yet quite sophisticated with their capabilities.”
With its new Datto networking offerings, the vendor looks to bring networking solutions to MSPs who haven’t had access to a complete portfolio in this space before. The Datto network portfolio includes three offerings:
- Datto Networking Appliance: Fully integrated network appliance that includes a network edge router, firewall, WiFi, intrusion detection and prevention, and fully integrated 4G LTE failover. Complete with six I/O ports, the Datto Networking Appliance delivers everything needed to deploy and manage a high-performance wired or wireless network.
- Datto Networking Switches: Network switches, created by Open Mesh, include robust Layer 2 management features. Datto switches seamlessly connect devices and users on the network, simplifying network deployments and ongoing management with plug-and-play integration with Datto access points. Available in 8, 24 or 48 port options, Datto switches are PoE+ enabled and accommodate virtually any sized network configuration for the SMB customer.
- Datto Networking WiFi: Mesh enabled WiFi access points, created by Open Mesh, deliver powerful 802.11ac wireless networks with seamless roaming for always connected WiFi. Datto’s smart access points work together to form a self-organizing, self-healing, encrypted mesh network to give MSPs more options for deploying and managing wireless networks.
Richards put emphasis on the self-healing mesh capabilities of these access points. With this “mesh concept”, every time an MSP sets up an access point, it will mesh wirelessly. If an access point then loses a network connect, the access point will then switch to mesh mode where it will, essentially, plug in a “hole” in the network using WiFi instead of a hardwired connection.
He provided an anecdote of a company who deployed these access points that had two buildings with a parking lot connected between them by a fiber cable flowing underneath. Due to construction, at some point the fiber cable was cut, but no one at the company knew that the cable was no longer operational due to the self-healing mesh process. Because the network automatically made moves to repair itself, it was months before anyone was aware that the cable had been cut.
“People just kept right on working and it took months to realize. It’s an example of this self-healing being so cool,” said Richards.
Datto Networking Switches and WiFi are now available in Canada and worldwide. Datto Networking Appliance is currently only available in the U.S., but Datto aims to bring it to the rest of the world by the end of 2017. For more you can read more here.