Cradlepoint rebrands as Ericsson Enterprise Wireless. How will this impact MobileCorp clients?

On 18 September 2020, the Swedish technology company, Ericsson  announced its acquisition of Cradlepoint, for US$1.1bn. Ericsson described the acquisition as key to its strategy of "capturing market share in the rapidly expanding 5G enterprise space."

Now, four years on, Ericsson is retiring the Cradlepoint brand and folding the solutions into its parent company branding.

What does the rebrand mean for MobileCorp's Cradlepoint customers?

The rebrand is essentially a change in name only.

All Cradlepoint hardware and software products and solutions that are already in the market and supported by MobileCorp are not impacted. 

Between now and the end of 2024, we will be transitioning from using the Cradlepoint name to using the Ericsson branding.  

You will begin to notice changes on our website, product documentation, and your NetCloud instance.

Ericsson does not have a partner ecosystem like Cradlepoint had, however all Cradlepoint partners - including MobileCorp - will have their accreditations and certifications rebranded and transferred to Ericsson Enterprise Wireless solutions.

To Cradlepoint hardware currently in market will retain its product naming convention with the addition of the Ericsson name.

How will this change impact MobileCorp's Cradlepoint managed service?

MobileCorp's Cradlepoint professional and managed services will change in name only. It will not change our service offering in any way.

Our Cradlepoint Managed Service will be renamed Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Managed Service. 

We will continue to provide the some breadth of 5G wireless networking services and solutions in the Australian market referring to these as Ericsson Enterprise Wireless solutions.

This will continue to include:

• 5G site assessments
• Cradlepoint-Ericsson device procurement
• Cradlepoint-Ericsson device configuration
• Onsite installations and testing
• Deployment remediation and remote troubleshooting
• Ericsson NetCloud instance builds
• Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Managed Service

MobileCorp Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Managed Service

What are the Ericsson Enterprise Wireless solutions?

All legacy Cradlepoint solutions are now part of the Ericsson Enterprise Wireless solutions portfolio.  Additionally, Ericsson Private 5G solutions will soon become more prominent in the Australian market. The solutions MobileCorp will offer are:

1. Wireless WAN

Cellular wireless has always been ideal for business continuity and connecting critical assets in places wires can’t go, like vehicles, field forces, and remote kiosks. However, today’s 5G networks are more pervasive and getting faster. As cloud applications, mobility, and IoT devices continue to proliferate, the Wireless WAN enables a flexible and unified approach to connecting people, places, and things anywhere. It uniquely combines reach and reliability with greater simplicity, agility, and security — just what you want in the next wave of network transformation. 

2. SD-WAN and 5G

Traffic steering, network slicing and beyond. SD-WAN has matured from being an MPLS replacement, to leveraging and optimising 5G cohesion with wired connections in a hybrid WAN. One of the most anticipated 5G features is network slicing, offering organisations distinctive levels of end-to-end performance across cellular networks. With Telstra 5G standalone deployment on the horizon in Australia, 5G-optimised SD-WAN will play a key role of recognising, classifying, and steering corporate applications into the most appropriate carrier-defined network slice from the enterprise edge.

3. 5G Networking

5G isn’t just a bigger pipe. 5G leads a major transformation from a two-dimensional voice and data service to a multi-dimensional networking platform. 5G is built to touch most operational points of a business — from immersive applications to vehicles to IoT. The jump off point in Australia has been to add 5G into the network for business continuity as an alternative to a wired line. But that is just the beginning. 

4. Private 5G

In many areas where organisations have business-critical devices and applications, wireless connectivity can be a challenge.  In some cases, Wi-Fi doesn’t scale well, while public cellular sometimes lacks the necessary coverage, dedicated bandwidth, or cost-effectiveness. Private 5G networks lend themselves to campus-style spaces like factories, distribution centres, mining sites, universities and hospitals. The barrier to widespread deployment in Australia is the lack of public access spectrum. With the carriers owning the radio waves, we are playing a waiting game until they launch a commercial Private 5G product.

5. SASE - Secure Access Service Edge

The rapid expansion of the enterprise network edge increases the possibility of data attacks as bad actors take advantage of the rise of IoT, cloud, and SaaS resources, guest Wi-Fi, and 5G. As enterprises deal with complex, disparate systems; overstretched IT teams; and outsized attack surfaces, they are choosing the end-to-end protection enabled by either a privileged access or a layered, cloud-managed network security strategy. This is SASE combining Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) with next-gen firewalls, content filtering, and more.