Guilford College Graduates to Mist's Modern Cloud Platform for Wi-Fi and BLE Location

CUPERTINO, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 3, 2017) - Mist, the pioneer in self-learning wireless networks using artificial intelligence, announced today that Guilford College has upgraded its five-year-old Wireless LAN (WLAN) infrastructure to Mist, continuing its commitment to stay abreast of the latest technologies and potential for further growth and innovation.

"Our primary goal was to provide reliable and measurable Wi-Fi coverage in classrooms, residential buildings, and the student union," said Chuck Curry, Director of Information Technology and Services (IT&S) at Guilford. "However, because we only have two full-time networking people, ease of operations and automation was also paramount."

Guilford evaluated several options to streamline and improve its wireless services, eventually landing on Mist -- a company that leverages machine learning and proactive automation to improve user experience and eliminate many operational burdens. In other words, Guilford now has the potential to use artificial intelligence to improve and simplify its wireless network.

"We were able to install the Mist APs into the existing ceiling mounts and then leverage preconfigured templates for configuration," Curry explains. "The average Mist AP was up and running in just five minutes, which was completely awesome!"

The biggest value of the Mist system, however, came after installation. Service levels were set up to measure key metrics -- like coverage and capacity -- ensuring that our campus community has the best service possible. The new technology also allows IT&S to rapidly isolate issues and address other non-wireless problems efficiently.

"Other than some students not knowing their Wi-Fi passwords, we did not have any actual Wi-Fi issues with our new Mist rollout, which is pretty incredible."

Going forward, the Guilford team has its eyes on several additional products and programs to further elevate user experience -- such as Personal WLANs that will allow for personal computing devices like Chromecast, AppleTV and gaming systems in residences halls to function more seamlessly. In addition, the Guilford team is interested in extending its wireless capabilities outdoors -- i.e. beyond the classrooms, residence halls and other buildings to outdoor common areas. The Mist platform also comes equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for location-based services and analytics to help personalize experiences across the campus.

Today's digital classrooms need amazing wireless networks that are predictable, reliable and measurable. By choosing the Mist Learning WLAN, Guilford College graduated to a modern cloud platform that uses AI to automate daily Wi-Fi operations, simplify troubleshooting, and most importantly ensure every student has a great mobile experience.

For more information or to see the recent webinar with Guilford College, please visit https://www.mist.com/c-guilford-college-goes-cloud/.

 Helpful Links:

• Mist website: www.mist.com
• Mist platform: www.mist.com/platform
• Mist products: www.mist.com/products/
• Mist services: www.mist.com/services

About Mist
Mist built the first AI-driven wireless platform, designed specifically for the Smart Device Era. The Mist Learning Wireless LAN makes Wi-Fi predictable, reliable and measurable by providing unprecedented visibility into the user experience and by replacing time consuming manual IT tasks with proactive automation. In addition, Mist is the first vendor to bring enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, BLE and IoT together to deliver personalized, location-based wireless services without requiring battery-powered beacons. All operations are managed via Mist's modern cloud architecture for maximum scalability, agility and performance.

The Mist team consists of leading experts in wireless, machine learning and cloud, who are responsible for building the largest and most advanced networks in the world. Founded in 2014, the company is based in Cupertino, CA and funded by top investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Cisco Investments. For more information, visit www.mist.com.