Devin was right...?
In the WiFi industry, there are fewer characters who are more polarizing than Devin Akin (@DevinAkin). I guess he is the 'Marmite' of the WiFi industry: you will generally be a huge fan, or maybe not so much :)
I personally have always been a huge fan of the work he did when he was part of the CWNP organization - I would not be in the position I am now without the fantastic work that Devin and the guys over at CWNP have done in providing vendor-neutral WiFi certifications.
However, back at the beginning of 2012, Devin had moved to Aerohive and was presenting at the WiFi Symposium, which was part of the Wireless Field Day 2 event. I watched all of the videos from that event and learned some very valuable information. However, Devin's presentation about Aerohive's architecture (which you can see at the bottom of this article), and his belief that in the future other vendors must move in a similar direction, was a 'light-bulb' moment for me. I had only been involved with controller-based solutions to that point and was fascinated with this 'new' approach. I was even more fascinated by his predictions around how the WiFi industry would evolve around cloud and controller-less solutions.
I watched this video again this morning, nearly 2 years later, and realized that in many areas he had pretty much nailed it. Although the industry isn't quite there yet, most vendors have moved, or are moving, in the directions he predicted.In retrospect, whether you're a Marmite fan or not, it's pretty impressive.
I'm hoping to be meeting up with Devin in the near future, following his move to AirTight networks. You can be sure I'll be paying very close attention to what he has to say...
I personally have always been a huge fan of the work he did when he was part of the CWNP organization - I would not be in the position I am now without the fantastic work that Devin and the guys over at CWNP have done in providing vendor-neutral WiFi certifications.
However, back at the beginning of 2012, Devin had moved to Aerohive and was presenting at the WiFi Symposium, which was part of the Wireless Field Day 2 event. I watched all of the videos from that event and learned some very valuable information. However, Devin's presentation about Aerohive's architecture (which you can see at the bottom of this article), and his belief that in the future other vendors must move in a similar direction, was a 'light-bulb' moment for me. I had only been involved with controller-based solutions to that point and was fascinated with this 'new' approach. I was even more fascinated by his predictions around how the WiFi industry would evolve around cloud and controller-less solutions.
I watched this video again this morning, nearly 2 years later, and realized that in many areas he had pretty much nailed it. Although the industry isn't quite there yet, most vendors have moved, or are moving, in the directions he predicted.In retrospect, whether you're a Marmite fan or not, it's pretty impressive.
I'm hoping to be meeting up with Devin in the near future, following his move to AirTight networks. You can be sure I'll be paying very close attention to what he has to say...
