New Nebula makes it easier to manage networks effectively

With release 10.1 of Nebula. Zyxel is making remote management of networks even easier and giving administrators and MSPs the capabilities to do an even better job for their users or customers, says Patrick Hirscher, EMEA Wireless Market Development Manager at Zyxel.

Zyxel’s Nebula cloud management platform has been a tremendous success since it was first launched almost four years ago. We are always enhancing and improving Nebula and a major new release is made available every six months, with smaller updates in between.

We do this to meet the constantly changing needs of our customers and partners. Also, technology is always moving on and if it’s possible to do more, we will always take the opportunity to deliver additional capabilities.

Big change

One of the biggest changes in IT over the last four years has been the growth of cloud computing and remote, managed services. Indeed, this was a major driver for the original development of Nebula. It was clear to us that more of our customers would want to make use of the flexibility that the cloud provides to install, manage, monitor, and update their networking solutions from a distance.

Nebula started out as a fairly simple management service that allowed you to set up, maintain and troubleshoot our switches and access points remotely. We have gradually extended its features and capabilities and today, Nebula is an extremely powerful and capable platform that enables customers and managed services providers to take full control of multiple networks.

With the latest version – release 10.1 – we have added even more capability and made Nebula even more useful and attractive.

Sharing the load

Most of the enhancements are to the Nebula Control Centre (NCC) and to WiFi management.

MSPs and administrators who manage multiple networks will be particularly interested in the new Control Centre features that allow you to transfer ‘ownership’ of a network to other administrators. It is also possible to ‘delegate’ control to someone else, and give them the same access rights, effectively allowing you to share control.

They will also like the re-designed layout for the MSP menu, which has been made fully consistent with the Nebula user interface. This is easier to use and just looks and feels a whole lot better. You can view and select different sites or customers quickly and easily.

Another major addition is the enhanced auto-topology feature. This will now recognise equipment from other vendors as well as Zyxel products, making it a much more valuable tool for management and for trouble-shooting. Please note though that this is only available if you have a Pro-Pack license.

Consistent performance

For customers thinking of upgrading their WiFi, we are now offering support for our four new WiFi 6 access points – the WAC500, WAC500H, WAC5302D-Sv2 and NWA1123ACv3. The first two WAC500 models are shipping now, the two latter APs will be available soon.

The auto-topology feature will now also allow the Smart Mesh settings of an individual AP to over-ride the global WiFi settings, so the local configuration can be kept intact.

Another WiFi addition worth mentioning is the enhanced support for the use of Dynamic Personal Pre-Shared Key (DPPSK) technology. This generates a personalised WiFi security key for all users and thus provides a much higher level of security. This also is only available with the Pro-Pack.

Finally, for Zyxel USG security gateways supported by Nebula, the content filtering engine is now provided by McAfee. This is recognized as the most comprehensive solution available today. You will need a Security Pack license to benefit from this feature – it is really worth having if you want to ensure you have the very best defences in place for your network.

The Nebula 10.1 update is now being rolled-out, so if you have a Nebula licence, you should already be benefiting from these additions. If you do not, but would like to learn more, contact your local Zyxel office or partner.