CommScope Intros Ruckus Cloud Management Service For Established, Aspiring MSPs

'IT will know what to do and what to do first, which changes the paradigm of managing complex networks in which help-desk tickets are often the early warning system for problems—not really a situation you want to be in," an executive for Ruckus, a CommScope business, tells CRN.

CommScope is making the most out of its Ruckus Networks acquisition with a brand-new artificial intelligence-powered network management service that will help MSPs—both veteran organizations and those new to the managed services arena—stay proactive and avoid the need for troubleshooting, executives told CRN.

The network infrastructure provider Tuesday unveiled Ruckus Analytics, a cloud, subscription-based service built on a foundation of AI and machine learning that offers network intelligence and simplifies service assurance for businesses as well as MSPs managing their customers' environments.

The purpose of the service is to provide network visibility across public and private clouds, as well as premises-based environments. The service uses AI derived from Ruckus networking elements, including access points and switches, to classify issues based on severity and give the IT team or channel partner machine learning-based recommendations to address urgent incidents before end users feel the impact, said Mark Davis, vice president of product and vertical solutions marketing for Ruckus at CommScope.

[Related: Networking As A Service Is The Play MSPs Should Pursue, Says CommScope]

This service will help IT professionals identify all of the current network-related incidents, whether they have affected services or not, Davis said.

"The point is, IT will know what to do and what to do first, which changes the paradigm of managing complex networks in which help-desk tickets are often the early warning system for problems—not really a situation you want to be in," he said.

Ruckus Analytics complements CommScope's existing premises-based and virtual appliance, and cloud-based control and management platform.

For partners, the new service can help back service-level agreements they have with their enterprise customers. The offering not only can help businesses avoid downtime due to network-related issues, but it can also help MSPs ensure a strong user experience that lives up to employee and customer expectations, Davis said.

"Depending on the user, like fans at a stadium or students on a school campus, the user experience implications can be bad from a customer satisfaction standpoint," he said. "User experience or lack thereof can affect productivity, morale and retention."

The multitenant, Software-as-a-Service-based offering is a great fit for MSPs because it gives them a valuable new service to offer customers and a new recurring revenue stream, said Bart Giordano, senior vice president for Ruckus Wireless and cloud at CommScope.

"A VAR can go into an existing Ruckus network and sell this service on top of it and bring a lot of value to a complex IT organization, or an MSP managing thousands of Ruckus elements on behalf of customers can use this to automate that process, surface critical issues, and really,automate their own MSP business," Giordano said.

Ruckus Analytics can be sold immediately and can be turned on in 30 minutes on top of existing networks, with no installation necessary—a big plus for MSPs that might not have access to customer sites due to the COVID-19 pandemic right now, he said. The service is also available via one new license, rather than several product licenses that some competing services require for full functionality.

Ruckus Analytics can be white-labeled by MSPs with their own brand and contact information for their own support teams for customers using the service to manage their own environments, said Phal Nanda, vice president of Ruckus cloud services at CommScope.

CommScope's Ruckus business unit does 100 percent of its business through channel partners.

Hickory, N.C.-based CommScope closed its "once-in-a-lifetime" acquisition of telecommunications equipment maker Arris, which owned Ruckus Networks, for $7.4 billion in August.