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To say that mobile technology is impacting brick-and-mortar retail is akin to proclaiming at the turn of the last century that the motorcar just might change the horse-drawn carriage business. Shoppers today are empowered by technology to gain the advantage at every turn, whether it’s using a smartphone to find the best price for the same product online, locate out-of-stock sizes or colors in the store next door, or learn what their friends or other customers had to say about a product before they buy.

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Retailers have two choices.

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They can pretend this isn’t happening and actively try to discourage these new consumer behaviors, like not offering in-store Wi-Fi for fear of increased showrooming (see Free Wi-Fi is a Win-Win for Retail Marketers and Customers ). Or, they can listen to their customers and do everything in their power to meet their changing needs and expectations.

So what do these empowered consumers want?

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According to the recent IBM study, From Transactions to Relationships: connecting with a transitioning shopper, what they want is a personalized in-store experience that not only mirrors the experience they get with online shopping, but is seamlessly integrated with their on- and offline shopping habits, preferences and history.

“Consumers are increasingly gravitating toward shopping experiences that allow them to be served according to their individual preferences,” states the report written by Kali Klena and Kill Puleri.

They then go on to outline the three key factors that retailers must address in order to capitalize on the changing behavior of the transitional consumer:

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1.   Store dominance decreases in an omnichannel world

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“The long-standing center of retail commerce, the brick and mortar store, is rapidly losing its appeal as customers turn to convenient online channels for their purchases.” This is not to say that the physical store will soon be going the way of the horse and buggy. While e-commerce is a legitimate threat to physical retail, it still represents only a tiny fraction of the overall retail market — 5.4% of total revenue to be exact.

No, the real threat to brick and mortar is decreasing customer loyalty in a world rich with choices, literally at the consumers’ fingertips. According to the IBM study, while 84 percent of respondents made their most recent non-grocery purchase in-store, only 56 percent said they were sure to return to the store for their next purchase.

2.   The impact of showrooming

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Showroomers—those who use mobile devices in-store to research and often purchase lower-priced items online—may be a small (but growing) segment of the consumer population, according to the IBM study, but they have a grievous impact on in-store revenue. Showroomers made nearly half of all online purchases in the retail categories covered by the IBM study. Most chilling: twenty-five percent said they initially planned to buy in-store, and 65 percent plan to buy online for their next purchase.

3.   Consumers desire more meaningful retail connection points

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In this burgeoning world of location tracking, web, retail and social Wi-Fi analytics, one might think that consumers would be overly sensitive to a loss of privacy. On the contrary, they want retailers to know even more about them and their buying preferences. In fact, the IBM study states that

“the majority of shoppers were willing to contribute 20 minutes on average to help a retailer better understand their desires in order to provide them with more meaningful offers based on their past purchases.”

The key is to make sure you are using the data you collect to treat customers like individuals, not as a market segment, by providing personalized offers, tips and information.

What to do about it

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The IBM study provides many more insights and next steps for retailers, and we highly recommend you read it. One tip that we at Airtight Networks agree with wholeheartedly:

“Technology will play a key role in helping retailers use this trend to boost loyalty and sales. As retailers start to offer customers free Wi-Fi access in their stores, they will have the opportunity to engage with customers while they are browsing the displays, by branding their Wi-Fi to drive shoppers to their own websites and services. And if customers give permission for their location to be tracked via their smartphone as they sign on to the Wi-Fi network, retailers can use analytics to make sense of this data and provide shoppers with personalized deals to drive conversion.”

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Parting Thought

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If you’re still worried about embracing the very technology that is threatening your business, I leave you with the story of William Durant, co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet. Initially, he was highly skeptical of the gas-powered “horseless carriage,” thinking them so dangerous he wouldn’t allow his daughter to ride in one. He wasn’t alone. By 1900, there was an enormous public outcry for safety regulations. Rather than wait for the government to intercede, Durant embarked on a mission to build the safer machines consumers were demanding. He succeeded by listening to transitioning consumer expectations and embraced technical innovation head on. (For the record, prior to the revolution he helped bring about, his Durant-Dort Carriage company was the leading producer of horse-drawn buggies in the world.)

Additional Information

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• Why Retail Matters by Laura Heller via Forbes

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• Market Research
  • IDC’s “Retail Insights Predictions 2013” webinar
  • Accenture Retail Research: Insights into Millennial Shopping Behavior Patterns includes 3 videos about millennial shopping myths
  • 23^rd Annual Retail Technology Study [2013] via RIS News

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• AirTight Retail Blogroll
  • Why retailers embrace cloud for Wi-Fi access, PCI and wireless security
  • To Shop or Not To Shop? | In-store Wi-Fi Is The Answer To That Question
  • Free Wi-Fi is a Win-Win for Retail Marketers and Customers
  • Book Review: The Retail Revival: Re-Imagining Business for the New Age of Consumerism

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• AirTight Retail Leadership
  • AirTight Launches Retail Wi-Fi Analytics Engine for In-Store Business Intelligence and Customer Engagement
  • AirTight Launches Social Wi-Fi; Integration of Social Channels & Customized Captive Portals Merges Social & In-Store Engagement

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• Follow AirTight Networks on Twitter

Lina Arseneault Best practices, smartphones, WiFi Access, Wireless security IBM Retail Report, retail

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Retailers have long battled the dual pressures of online shopping and congested marketing channels just to get people to walk through their door. Now showrooming has moved the war inside the store, as a fragile economy combined with the ubiquity of mobile devices has created a savvy new breed of consumers who use their smartphones and tablets to research products and prices while they browse the aisles. It’s like having scores of invisible competitors whispering in the ears of your hard won customers.

Fortunately, there’s a way to fight back, gain control of the conversation, and provide a deeper, more meaningful relationship with your customers, all while providing them with a service they’ve been asking for: free in-store Wi-Fi.

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Your customers want free Wi-Fi

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Recent research from Yankee Group finds that ninety-six percent of customers prefer locations that offer free Wi-Fi and return to stores that offer it. Seventy-eight percent of shoppers would access Wi-Fi if it were offered in-store. That alone should be reason enough to consider installing in-store Wi-Fi. However, while most retailers have put in the blood, sweat and tears necessary to make sure their online presence is as good, if not better, than their ecommerce-only competitors, many have neglected the potential digital footprint of their brick-and-mortar stores:

• 26% of retailers do not have any wireless network
• 26% only have wireless available for receiving and other inventory-related tasks
• 29% have wireless connectivity throughout the store, but only for performance, POS, and other product-related operations
• Only 19% provide wireless connectivity for customers

According to Retail Systems Research, “the lack of a wireless infrastructure on the selling floor…is the single biggest inhibitor to improving the in-store experience.”

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Free Wi-Fi is more than access. It’s Permission to Engage

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While it is true that customers with mobile devices can access the Internet through their mobile carrier data connection, thirty-seven percent of respondents of a recent Deloitte study reported problems accessing the Internet while in a store. In this “always on” world of instant connectivity to information and people, no access or spotty connectivity could actually be driving people out of your establishment. Offering free high-speed access not only provides a richer mobile experience – and goodwill toward your brand – it enables a valuable means by which you can further engage your shoppers. According to an OnDeviceResearch survey, 74% of respondents would be happy for a retailer to send a text or email with promotions while they’re using in-store Wi-Fi.

By being the digital intermediary between your customers and their in-store search behavior, you’re now in a position (and have their permission via your Wi-Fi service opt-in agreement) to engage in the conversation, offer price matching, access to expanded product offerings or personalized shopping lists. These personalized services not only help provide a seamless and customized brand experience that encourage consumers to stay longer or purchase more, but provide invaluable information about their in-store and digital shopping habits.

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Wi-Fi Brings Online-style Analytics to Brick-and-Mortar

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According to Deloitte 80% of consumers step in and out of the average retail establishment without making a purchase.

Retail Motion Infographic

Since consumer-behavior data is typically collected at the point of sale (POS), you are basically blind to the interests, influencers and behaviors of an overwhelming majority of your in-store foot traffic.

Wi-Fi changes the equation by providing brick-and-mortar retailers with the type of deep analytics we’re accustomed to with our web and social media presence, including traffic flows, dwell time, mobile platform usage, web destinations and products researched. Access to real-time metrics enables retailers to better understand a large swath of their customers’ behavior – whether they’re buying or not.  Data collected can be used for anything from changing signage, product displays or traffic patterns, to providing personalized promotions or offers to individual shoppers.

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Reasons Why Retail Leaders Use In-Store Wi-Fi

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The Bottom Line

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Your customers are going to use their mobile devices to comparison shop in your store. Providing free Wi-Fi enables you to insert yourself into the conversation they’re having with your competitors. Analytics can give you unprecedented visibility into in-store behavior – both physically and digitally – which you can then use to create more value for your customers and brand loyalty for yourself. Consumers benefit by getting what they asked for – free, high quality Internet access – along with customized offers and an integrated, personalized experience across all of your channels. That’s a win-win if I ever heard one.   

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Lina Arseneault 802.11n, Best practices, PCI, WiFi Access, Wireless security Deloitte, retail analytics, RSR, social analytics, Yankee

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CWNP (Certified Wireless Networking Professional) is widely recognized as the IT industry standard for vendor neutral enterprise Wi-Fi certification and training.  CWNP publishes videos, white papers, blogs, and other materials that assist the networker in learning Wi-Fi technologies and preparing for CWNP certification exams. The WiSE article series is one of these CWNP thought leadership content initiatives.

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About the WiSE Article Series:

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Wireless is inherently complex; its study spans at least two engineering disciplines: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Add to this the nuances of various standards, vendor implementations, RF environments, and protocol interactions, and it is not uncommon to feel a little lost in understanding the various aspects of Wi-Fi network operation. In this series of short articles, we explain various Wi-Fi subtleties, to work toward a better understanding of Wi-Fi network deployments.

The WiSE article series editor is Tom Carpenter and the first 5 WiSE articles feature AirTight Networks wireless subject matter experts as CWNP guest bloggers.

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1) Wi-Fi Throughput Algebra – Simplified

Author: Bhaskaran Raman, PhD.     Read WiSE article 1

In this first article in a multi-part WiSE Article Series, Bhaskaran Raman explains the formulas you can use to estimate throughput on WLANs. This article simplifies Wi-Fi throughput algebra, to give a rule of thumb for what throughput to expect when taking into account at least the first order factors which affect all environments and tests.   Read WiSE article 1

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2) Wi-Fi Subtleties Explained (Parameters that Matter)

Author: Bhaskaran Raman, Ph.D.     Read WiSE article 2

This second article talks about parameters that impact Wi-Fi throughput. You may be surprised to learn that it’s not all about the lower layers (Physical and Data Link), but the TCP communications have a significant impact as well.   Read WiSE article 2

3)  Wi-Fi Subtleties Explained (Channel Bonding)

Author: Bhaskaran Raman, Ph.D.     Read WiSE article 3

In this third installment of the WiSE article series from AirTight Networks, channel bonding is considered. Some surprising results will cause you to rethink your network design plans and possibly how you will implement newer 802.11 technologies.  Read WiSE article 3

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4)  Wi-Fi Subtleties Explained (Quality of Service [QoS] Controls)

Author: Hemant Chaskar, Ph.D.     Read WiSE article 4

Quality of Service (QoS) is another aspect of the network performance that is relevant for applications such as VoIP over Wi-Fi. In this context, QoS is provided by prioritizing the packets belonging to specific applications such as VoIP over others so that they encounter minimal latency in transit. It takes three different sections of the data path to use three different techniques for the end-to-end handling of wireless QoS-sensitive packets, as discussed below. The idea of this article is not to provide overview of standard Wi-Fi QoS mechanisms such as WMM, but to point out some subtleties in using them in the network.   Read WiSE article 4

5)  Interference from Non-WiFi Sources, Part 1

Author: Bhaskaran Raman, Ph.D.     Read WiSE article 5 – part I

RF interference is an important concern in Wi-Fi networks. Such interference can come from two types of sources: Wi-Fi or non-Wi-Fi. In this and the follow up article, the focus is on subtleties pertaining to non-Wi-Fi interference sources.  Read WiSE article 5 – part I

Full list of CWNP WiSE articles

Check back often as new articles are published on a regular basis.

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About the AirTight WiSE authors:

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Bhaskaran Raman is a scientist at AirTight Networks, working on high performance Wi-Fi architecture. Bhaskar received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1999 and 2002 respectively, and his B.Tech in CSE from IIT Madras, India in May 1997. He was a faculty in the CSE department at IIT Kanpur from 2003-07. Since July 2007, he has been a professor at the CSE department at IIT Bombay. His research interests and expertise are in wireless and mobile communication networks. Bhaskar was a recipient of the IBM Faculty Award in the year 2008. He has published research papers in various IEEE and ACM conferences and journals, and is on the editorial board of ACM Computer Communication Review.

Hemant Chaskar is VP for Technology and Innovation at AirTight Networks. In this role, he looks after AirTight’s technology R&D and also performs roles in product design, business development, and various customer facing activities. At AirTight, Hemant has been working on Wi-Fi networking and security for the past 8 years; and has held positions at Nokia Research and Lucent Technologies prior to that. He holds Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Additional Information

Follow CWNP on Twitter

Contact Tom Carpenter – WiSE Article Series Editor

More information on CWNP certifications

Follow Airtight on Twitter

Contact Bhaskaran Raman and Hemant Chaskar at AirTight Networks

Pravin Bhagwat 802.11ac, 802.11n, Best practices, Wireless scanning, Wireless security, WLAN networks, WLAN planning CWNP, Tom Carpenter, WiSE

Canadian Doug Stephens, founder of “Retail Prophet” is the author of the groundbreaking book,

The Retail Revival: Re-Imagining Business for the New Age of Consumerism.

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I read the retail futurist’s book soon after it was released in February 2013.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It’s a sobering wake-up call for all retail professionals and offers them prescriptions for what to focus on in order to profit from the current and coming chaos. Part of the book’s appeal is that the discussion isn’t restricted to a narrow definition of retail.  Instead, it looks at the topic from a broad category perspective. Best of all, the book appeals to the consumer in all of us.

Retail Revival starts off with a historical assessment of the shaping forces in retail as well as perspectives on how massive demographic, economic and media disruptions are thrusting a once predictable industry into a vortex of change.

Historically known for being laggards in the face of technological change (especially when compared to other industry segments) the retail industry is undergoing a complete metamorphosis – albeit somewhat involuntary in many cases.  Stephens explains how some retailers are embracing the change opportunities while others blindly absorb the ripples of change.  Laggards invest (sometimes unconsciously) much of their energy in reactive competitive moves or plain old inertia.

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Customer Centricity

Forward thinking retailers place the customer at the heart of their differentiated value propositions while others continue to muddle through with strategies of bygone eras.  Stephens emphasizes that companies that don’t adapt to the disruptions will become extinct whereas companies that adapt will grow and thrive.

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The retailer’s choice is clear: evolve to a model of true customer centricity or accelerate the rate at which you become a fossil.

Stephens discusses several “fossilized case studies” throughout his book.  In a recent blog post, he takes a position on J.C.Penney – the troubled U.S. retailer.  Read “Is It Time To Let The Troubled Retailer Die?”

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In the first part of Retail Revival, much of the historical lessons are North American, primarily U.S. and Canadian examples. However, in the near term future of an industry in transition, Stephens features several worldly examples ranging from the U.K., Germany, South Korea and many other countries.  In the end, the book is well balanced in its diversity of case study examples.

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Location, Location, Location

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Especially compelling is Stephen’s argument that the future of retail shouldn’t be thought of in polarizing terms of online or brick-and-mortar worlds but rather at the intersection of where the current or future customer is.  Opportunity rewards retailers who respond with contextually compelling offers – when and where – the customer most wants them.

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Related Blog Posts

The Future of The Retail Store by Doug Stephens

Local Retail Won’t Disappear — Mobile Will Transform the In-Store Experience by Steven Jacobs

IDC describes this modern group of consumers as the value-savvy Five-I shoppers who are:

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• Instrumented with mobile devices,
• Informed with access to the Internet on their devices,
• Interconnected in social communities,
• In-place always in stores or wherever else the shoppers might be, and
• Immediate in their ability to take action.

Source: IDC Retail Insights: Retail industry 2013 Top 10 Predictions, #GR1238956

Clicks Meet Bricks

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Social media and technology will obviously play a big role in retailer transformation.  Those with a deep understanding of customer demographics and real time analytics will design personalized and frictionless paths to purchase and will be rewarded with sales AND positive social reference.  Connectivity will obviously be at the intersection of these worlds.

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Customer Analytics Gains Traction in
2013 via Retail Info Systems [infographic]

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In the new age of consumerism, the world is now your store.    Doug Stephens

Source: The Retail Revival: Re-Imagining Business for the New Age of Consumerism | page 185

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Bridge to The Future

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If you opt to read the printed version of the book, you can still benefit from video interludes opportunities as these are sprinkled throughout the book.  Using the QR code reader on your smart device (I happen to like i-nigma), simply scan the QR code in context within a chapter and you’ll quickly be taken from traditional media to digital media. 

My 3 Retail Revival favorites are:

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1) US Postal Service “Hacked” Ad

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YouTube video : US Postal Service “Hacked” Ad
(The QR code scan leads to this location)

Scan with the QR code reader on your smart device
(I happen to like i-nigma)

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2) The Third Shelf: Retail Speaker Doug Stephens

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Scan the QR code with your smart device QR code reader
(I happen to like i-nigma)

View the YouTube video : The Third Shelf: Retail Speaker Doug Stephens

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3) Mobile 3.0 Explained: Retail Speaker Doug Stephens

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Scan with the QR code reader on your smart device
(I happen to like i-nigma)

View the YouTube video : Mobile 3.0 Explained: Retail Speaker Doug Stephens

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Through the use of QR codes, Stephens effectively creates a bridge between print and digital.

The New Moon Race:  Personalization and Community

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Retail Revival includes several examples of current and future technologies that will completely change the way we shop.  Many of the examples showcased in Retail Revival are also featured by springwise.com in Top ten Retail articles from the last 12 months.

Forward thinking retailers will transform – not just evolve their business models. As IDC puts it, the winners will have a “whole-person understanding of each customer before, during, and beyond each shopping journey to purchase”*. Imagine a not so distant future where your shopping cart lives on in time, across devices, from online to mobile; and from store to social community.

*Source: IDC Retail Insights: Retail industry 2013 Top 10 Predictions, #GR1238956, page 6

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Liquid & Linked

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In a world that rewards velocity, retailers would be wise to heed Bruce Lee’s advice of “be like water”.  To that end, Stephens’ book provides retailers with advice on how to capitalize from historical shifts, focus on what matters and how to profit from the current and emerging changes. Any business eager to remain competitive or one that dares to trail blaze should assign this book as mandatory reading.

As for the consumer in all of us, Retail Revival will further awaken each of us to the burgeoning power of association and the transformation of the shopping experience on our terms.

Additional Information:

• More information about the book and where to find it
• Book Excerpt via RetailCustomerExperience.com
• Why Retail Matters by Laura Heller via Forbes
• Accenture Retail Research: Insights into Millennial Shopping Behavior Patterns includes 3 videos about millennial shopping myths
• 23^rd Annual Retail Technology Study [2013] via RIS News
• AirTight Launches Retail Wi-Fi Analytics Engine for In-Store Business Intelligence and Customer Engagement
• Why retailers embrace cloud for Wi-Fi access, PCI and wireless security | blog post by Hemant Chaskar
• To Shop or Not To Shop? | In-store Wi-Fi Is The Answer To That Question | blog post by Lina Arseneault
• Case Studies:  PinkBerry, Noodles and Company, and Garden Fresh
• Follow Doug Stephen on Twitter
• Follow AirTight Networks on Twitter
• Contact Lina Arseneault

• RSR Research and AirTight Discuss the Benefits of In-store Wi-Fi [webinar] Wi-Fi as a Competitive Retail Advantage | Date: April 30,2013 Time: 11 AM Pacific | Register for the webinar

Lina Arseneault PCI, smartphones, WiFi Access, Wireless security Accenture Retail, Doug Stephens, garden fresh, idc retail insights, J.C. Penney, Laura Heller, noodles and company, pinkberry, retail analytics, retail revival, RetailProphet, retial prophet, RIS News, RSR Research, social analytics, springwise.com, Steven Jacobs, Third Shelf

Did you know that 80% of mobile consumers are influenced by in-store Wi-Fi as a factor in deciding where they shop?

By Lina Arseneault

In early 2013, IDC issued the updated version of its IDC Retail Insights report outlining the top 10 predictions for the world-wide retail industry.  One of the report’s authors is retail research director Leslie Hand.  She and I recently met at IDC’s Directions annual conference in Silicon Valley to discuss the recently published report.

Most of our discussion centered on the first four predictions from IDC’s top 10 predictions list.

1. Omnichannel Retail Maturity Will Move from Foundation to Convergence and from Precision to Immersion
2. Retailers’ Omnichannel Objectives Will Require Platform and Architecture Investments
3. Retailers Will Invest in Customer Analytics, Merchandizing, and Marketing Technologies to Curate Commerce and Contextualize Communications
4. Retailers Will Pivot Merchandizing and Marketing on Customer Analytics to Drive Revenue and Profit, Relevance and Reciprocity Being the Watchwords

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RSR Research and AirTight Discuss the Benefits of In-store Wi-Fi

Webinar: Wi-Fi as a Competitive Retail Advantage | Date: April 30,2013 Time: 11 AM Pacific

Register for the webinar

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Leslie and I agreed that consumers are forcing retailers to act faster than they traditionally have and that this type of pressure is only likely to increase.  Digital and physical interactions are increasingly intertwined and consumers are demanding that retailers engage with them on these terms.

Retailers are realizing that knowing more about their shoppers can be the key to building relationships and boosting sales.

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Retail Motion Infographic

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80% of mobile consumers are influenced by in-store Wi-Fi as a factor in deciding where they shop

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View our Retail Motion Infographic

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Retailers serious about meeting the customer expectations challenge head on can make continuous nurturing refinements based on  retail analytics.  Savvy retailers will need to make the most of their Wi-Fi networks to not only drive sales but also to build up CRM programs.

Leslie and I rounded out our conversation by touching on AirTight’s experience in working with PinkBerry, the five year old Los Angeles based Brand best known for its highly popular handcrafted yogurt bar. Central to the PinkBerry promise is the belief in the power of human connection.  Accordingly, the driving force behind PinkBerry’s Wi-Fi deployment was the launch of The Pinkcard, PinkBerry’s loyalty program and mobile app; as well as requests from store customers and owners for Wi-Fi access services.  The company exceeded its three-month goals in just one month.

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Read the PinkBerry case study

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I can think of no better way to close our this blog post than by letting (virtual) Leslie Hand touch on the new retail paradigm and the opportunities it presents.

View the YouTube video, Mobility: The New Retail Paradigm by Leslie Hand.

Additional Information:

• IDC’s “Retail Insights Predictions 2013” webinar
• Follow IDC Retail Research Director Leslie Hand on Twitter
• Follow AirTight Networks on Twitter
• Contact Lina Arseneault

Note: A version of this blog was originally published as a guest post for the PurpleWifi blog.

Lina Arseneault PCI, WiFi Access, Wireless security idc retail insights, leslie hand, pinkberry, retail

Why Casinos Fear 802.11ac : Real life Ocean’s Eleven

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By Hemant Chaskar|

The expression “it’s too good to be true … then it probably is” is befitting of a recent Ocean’s Eleven type caper.  In March, the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia was the victim of a skimming scheme.  Mark Butler of the Herald Sun reported that “a gambler has been able to get into the security system remotely and, … advise the player about what other cards the other players are holding, and he’s cleaned up to the tune of 32 million.”  Amazing isn’t it, but anything is possible for that kind of “ROI”!

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Did you know that Wi-Fi can also be used for skimming a casino?

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Last year, we worked with a customer in Macau (the Las Vegas of the East) who described a casino skimming sequence over Wi-Fi, which is no less amazing than the Crown Casino story. In this sequence, the player has a Wi-Fi enabled camera or smartphone tucked on him. It takes videos of wheel of fortune being spun, roulette wheel being turned, or cards being shuffled. The video is sent to the cloud in real time over Wi-Fi. Neighborhood Wi-Fi APs around the casino floor, which for this customer were mainly in the shops and restaurants around the gaming zone which had all installed Wi-Fi for guests, are used to send the video to the cloud. Cloud computers crunch the video frames to arrive at high probability estimate of the winning bet. The estimate is communicated to the player who places the bets accordingly.

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Higher speeds with 802.11ac means Wi-Fi skimming is all that more possible

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With 802.11ac, Wi-Fi link speeds will go up several times. That would make sending video to the cloud even faster and with higher resolution, it makes the above skimming scenario even more successful. So, even though boon for enterprises and consumers, 802.11ac would be a thing for the casinos to worry about.

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AirTight WIPS as antidote to skimming casinos over Wi-Fi

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We offered AirTight WIPS to the Macau casino as an antidote to protect against skimming over Wi-Fi. With location based policy enforcement, AirTight WIPS identifies when clients are in sensitive gaming areas and then does not allow their Wi-Fi radios to connect to any neighborhood APs. When clients are outside of the sensitive gaming areas such as in the lobby, restaurants or stores, WIPS automatically releases them from the containment, so they can now connect to Wi-Fi. We call it geo-fencing!

Another way WIPS helps casinos, which we have seen in the US, is to enforce gaming regulation that online gambling provided by casino like raffles, bingos and such is not allowed outside of the casino facility. WIPS can detect when clients cross the boundary of the legal gambling facility and then prevent them from connecting to the casino APs thereby ensuring that online gambling can only be done from the casino floors.

These are some examples of application of the technology one cannot envisage while building it. But how much of a diverse value deep technology can provide is very satisfying to watch.

When we worked with the Macau casino few years ago, AirTight WIPS was overlaid on Cisco WLC infrastructure that the casino had deployed for its own wireless applications. Now, AirTight offers its own state of the art enterprise WLAN access product line with controller-less, cloud managed, smart edge APs, and AirTight WIPS built in at no extra cost. So whatever the threat scenario may be – rogue APs, honeypots, PCI compliance, BYOD, CIPA compliance, gaming regulation or exotic casino skimming - with AirTight Wi-Fi access solution, you never have to worry about Wi-Fi security.

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Additional Information:

Crown casino hi-tech scam nets $32 million via Herald Sun

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Hemant Chaskar 802.11ac, 802.11n, mobile device management, WiFi Access, Wireless scanning, Wireless security

By Kaustubh Phanse  – AirTight Chief Evangelist

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If predictions from leading technology analyst firms are to be believed, the worldwide Wi-Fi market will continue to grow.

Dell’Oro estimates the Wi-Fi market to grow to $9.9 billion by 2016 of which the enterprise WLAN segment alone is estimated to be over $5 billion in revenues.

Gartner anticipates an even faster growth for the enterprise WLAN segment, with spending expected to reach $7.9 billion in 2016.

Here are a few trends (some of which are already happening!), which will go hand-in-hand with this next wave of massive growth in the enterprise WLAN market.

Distributed Wi-Fi, Centrally Managed

A growing number of enterprises will want to extend their Wi-Fi rollout across remote locations, e.g., branch offices, retail stores, distribution centers, restaurants, and the list could go on. The key challenge then would be to have centralized visibility and management of the entire deployment—ideally from a single console.

This trend will make the traditional controller-based architecture outdated sooner than later because it was not designed to manage Wi-Fi networks across geographically distributed sites. It’s too complex, costly, and does not scale. The change of guards is evidenced in the number of recent announcements by controller-based WLAN vendors. Some are hiding the controller in the cloud, some are hiding them in arrays, some are saying that they are giving customers a “choice” to turn it off (without telling them what functions will stop working without it!), while some are simply giving their marketing a “controller-less” spin. Unfortunately, you can’t turn a fork into a spoon overnight to eat soup instead of spaghetti! Or maybe you can!

Naturally, an increasing number of enterprises are looking for an alternative that:

Linearly scales to tens, hundreds or thousands of distributed locations, but can be managed centrally from a single console;

Enables literally plug-and-play installation and true zero-touch configuration of access points (APs) at remote sites without IT staff;

Is fault-tolerant by design so the full wireless network and security functionality continues to work without depending on access to a central management server;

Supports a new paradigm of network and security management and role-based administration of distributed locations in the context of locations and not in the context of “SSIDs” alone.

WLAN as a Managed Service

That brings me to my next trend, which will redefine how enterprise Wi-Fi networks are managed: Cloud! Enterprises have adopted cloud technologies in recent years to replace software applications that they once ran on their own network. But in 2013 and beyond, an increasing number of companies will look up to the cloud to manage their distributed Wi-Fi networks and related services such as wireless security and compliance. And in many cases, they will outsource their network and security management to managed service providers (MSPs). In fact, we have seen a significant growth in our partnerships with MSPs wanting to host cloud-managed WLAN services. But, not all clouds are made equal. So providers looking for cloud partnerships should carefully assess how cloudy is the cloud before making the leap. Only a true multi-tenant cloud solution will allow them to manage hundreds of customers in a cost-effective way, i.e., without having to host a server (appliance or VM instance) for every customer!

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Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

The BYOD trend, with employees using personal smartphones and tablets at work, has significantly driven Wi-Fi adoption and evolution over the last couple of years. It has also led to a growing trend of other unauthorized Wi-Fi devices, e.g., Rogue APs, Soft Rogue APs and mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, on enterprise networks. While mobile device management (MDM) and NAC vendors have tried to market themselves as the silver bullet for managing BYOD, neither of them have complete visibility into the Wi-Fi activity of these personal devices and hence cannot provide comprehensive access control for BYOD. Naturally, questions are being raised on whether MDM is really needed or is it dead?

A growing number of enterprises are opting for a reliable wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS) – either as an overlay on top of existing WLAN solutions or as a built-in feature with their WLAN solution – to provide them with 24/7 wireless monitoring and policy enforcement, including BYOD. Automatic and accurate classification of Wi-Fi devices detected in the enterprise airspace, automatic fingerprinting and onboarding of smartphones and tablets onto the enterprise network, and the ability to reliably block any unauthorized devices or those violating security policies will be crucial to minimize security exposure and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, while avoiding excessive burden on the IT security staff.

A New Standard, Higher Speeds!

Last, but not the least, 2013 is also expected to see the ratification of a new Wi-Fi standard in the form of IEEE 802.11ac, nicknamed as Gigabit Wi-Fi! 802.11ac uses wider channels (80 MHz and 160 MHz) as compared to 802.11n (20 MHz and 40 MHz) in the relatively clean 5 GHz frequency band and enables data rates up to 1.3 Gbps. Some pre-standard 802.11ac products are already in the market, with the approval of the standard expected in late 2013. Like it was the case with 802.11n, the early 802.11ac rollouts will be mainly access points. This year has already seen some rumors and some announcements of 802.11ac support in mobile devices. However, widespread adoption of 802.11ac is expected only by 2014-2015 when majority of Wi-Fi clients will support the standard. Till then, enterprises are likely to postpone the investment in an 802.11ac upgrade of their WLAN infrastructure to maximize the ROI.

Listen to the ebook

Additional Information:

Kaustubh Phanse 802.11n, BYOD, mobile device management, WiFi Access, Wireless security, WLAN networks

Did you know that all cloud Wi-Fi’s aren’t created equal?

The race is on to put cloud in Wi-Fi

The word “cloud” in the name doesn’t tell the whole story, one has to dig deeper. Here’s why.

Hemant Chaskar Cloud computing, WiFi Access, Wireless security, WLAN networks AirTight Wi-Fi, Aruba Activate, cloud managed, cloud Wi-Fi, controller-less

• Cisco Warns of Vulnerabilities in Wireless LAN Controllers by Mike Lennon Managing Editor at Security Week

• Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers Wireless Intrusion Prevention System Denial of Service Vulnerability via Cisco Vulnerability Alert

Particularly interesting is Cisco’s proposed workarounds which state:

Proposed workarounds for vulnerabilities in Cisco wireless LAN Controllers

Read more…

Hemant Chaskar 802.11n, Wireless security, WLAN networks Cisco aWIPS, DDoS, security alert, skyjacking

As Wi-Fi deployments extend into large distributed environments, management of these Wi-Fi networks poses unique challenges. It could be the clinic-wide deployment for the medical facility running into 100’s of sites, branch-wide deployment for the bank running into 1000’s of sites, or store-wide deployment for the fast food restaurant running into 10,000’s sites. The network and security management needs for such deployments are very different from the traditional campus Wi-Fi. Accordingly, the network management console has to deliver on a number of fronts. Read more…

Hemant Chaskar Cloud computing, WiFi Access, Wireless security, WLAN networks ap tagging, ap tags, cloud Wi-Fi, console, GUI, Network management, WIPS