In preparation for Ubiquiti’s first time presentation at Mobility Field Day 11, I started to prepare a couple questions I was curious about after their secret Ubiquiti World Conference, a couple months ago. As a long time user who got snubbed to the super secret product announcements at UWC, I was hoping to see some things come to light and oh did they deliver.
Fellow #MFD11 delegate, Drew Lentz, did an excellent job building the hype at that event. As he mentioned in this video he posted to X, Ubiquiti has been hyper focused on moving into Enterprise.
That’s what everyone in the know was expecting..
And then a Ubiquiti Discord moderator pinged @everyone in the “the-lounge” on Ubiquiti’s User Discord.. a Discord group I’ve had to mute because of number of discussions that happen over there. Just before showtime, as a long time member of that Discord, my computer along with hundreds of others around the world got a wake up call to something happening with Ubiquiti. I just so happened to be in the room.
Just this simple post:
“@everyone Reminder UI is going to be presenting at Tech Field Day in 30 minutes (Wifi-7, upcoming APs, ect.)”..
changed the next hour of my life.
The Ubiquiti faithful were watching along side the Ubiquiti Youtubers, and little #MFD11 delegate me being the mouthpiece to this firehose.
Things went CRAZY!! I don’t think anyone has had such a following during a live event at any of the Tech Field Day events. Even Tom (the Tech Field Day one, Tom Hollingsworth) at the end talked about the hundreds of people watching the live stream. I knew there was a cult following, but not that crazy obsessed.
Being a member of that Discord, I asked if anyone had questions and soon got a WAVE of questions and suggestions including people wanting me to “prove” that I was in the room by asking off the wall things or coughing (which did happen at one point and the crowds rejoiced). Needless to say, I was not prepared for that following that UI-Tom (the other Tom aka Tom Hildebrand) deals with every day on the forums.
Ubiquiti has established themselves with a cult like following from the consumer and the small and medium business sides. Ubiquiti is growing their fan base from the bottom up and are ready to take on Enterprises.
But let’s backup a little bit and focus on what they actually announced..
Enterprise Focus
Starting off.. let’s consider their Enterprise Focus.
Ubiquiti networks is a favorite of mine on the Prosumer side. I have been using their gear for over 10 years for some of my small projects for my family businesses. Long time readers of this blog have seen me test Ubiquiti gear as my first Wifi 6e APs with their U6 Enterprise line.
Ubiquiti recently released one of the cheapest prosumer grade Wifi 7 APs with the Unifi AP 7 Pro. While the Pro name would suggest it is a higher end AP, at 2×2 on all three radios it doesn’t meet up to the standard. It’s a great AP, just not quite enterprise grade.
Then comes Mobility Field Day 11, and Ubiquiti’s plans get some much needed clarification. Ubiquiti is focused on a 3 step approach. Hardware, Software, and adding a Premium Support option.
Enterprise Grade Hardware
The Hardware and Software focus has been coming for a while. Their Wifi 6e U6 Enterprise APs and Enterprise Switching line have been their preliminary support for that shift. That shift continued with their new products, the U7 Pro Max AP and the Enterprise Fortress Gateway announced at MFD11.
Unlike the U7 Pro that I’ve been playing with for a few months, the new U7 Pro Max is more along the lines of Enterprise grade APs with 4×4 on the 5GHz radio and a Dedicated Spectral Scanning Radio. This is much needed improvement and does bring the device up closer to par for Enterprise grade hardware.
Ubiquiti also announced a non Wifi product.. the Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG).. not to be confused with the BFG. My experience with previous Ubiquiti Routers, such as the Unifi Dream Machine Pro (UDMP), is that the hardware specs are limiting on what you can actually turn on feature wise. If you have any level of medium to large network, the UDMP struggles under the load if you turn firewall features on. This is a welcome sight to see that they are working on hardware for larger venues.
“It’s a powerhouse.. For those of you who are familiar with the Dream Machine Pro, this is like five times the capacity of that.”
Craig Wojtala
For my large school districts, this most likely won’t be replacing my Palo Alto or Fortinet Firewalls soon, but they are on the right path. Smaller school districts or charter schools that are on budgets, may find this to be enough of a solution for their budgets as the pricing on the Palo Alto and Fortinets continue to rise.
The new Enterprise Fortress Gateway should put many of these issues to bed, AS LONG as they can deliver on the software side. From this list it is promising that they will deliver that promise on the software side.
Enterprise Grade Software
Other than the discussion about upcoming features for the Enterprise Fortress Gateway, Ubiquiti’s Andrew Pieper talked about the software side of what they have been building. From the ability to do HA Failovers on their routers, to being able to capture packets from their APs, to surveying the wifi signal, to site-to-site VPNs, to reporting. Unifi is making everything they do, especially certain features that are expected on Enterprise grade hardware, easy to use.
If they can nail the software, I think that is going to help them migrate into more enterprises and even possibly disrupt the existing market in certain ways.
Ubiquiti has always been about having a great User Interface. Their UI is part of what has built their fan base. They have slowly been moving into providing better Analytics. They are just getting into the Workflows for Augmenting the network with integrations such as ServiceNow. This will be a bit of a wait and see, but I’m excited to see what they come up with.
Like everyone else, they did mention that they are following what others are doing with LLMs. They already have a separate App called Unifi Portal that allows you to have a GPT Chatbot for asking questions. Sounds like they are looking to integrate it directly into their website and other apps as well.
Professional Premium Support
Ubiquiti is finally giving their support a massively needed bump. While their forums are great, there have been so many times where I’ve had issues that is costing my businesses money, and I can’t find a solution quickly. This has been one of those things that has kept them squarely in the Prosumer market.
The fact that Ubiquiti is enabling Professional Services while maintaining their No Licensing Fees ever is a game changer. Obviously, if you need these services, it will be a premium that you will pay for, but unlike previously not having this. It is a welcome change!
So What About The Cult Followers?
Moving forward, how does Ubiquiti maintain the relationships with their Cult followers; while, shifting focus to a whole different world in the enterprise?
I think that cult following of users who watched the broadcast live and pestered me on Discord is a blessing and a curse. When you have a following like Ubiquiti from people who are not necessarily the “experts” in the industry, any change can bring frustration. Ubiquiti needs to better distinguish what is small business verse enterprise grade or there may be confusion.
There are so many on that discord already hoping for the new Enterprise Fortress Gateway or Unifi U7 Pro Max AP to be cheap enough for them to put in their houses. A lot of Wifi Engineers cut their teeth on Ubiquiti gear that ends up at home because of the cost or it is being installed in the small business where they start their careers. I’m a product of that model although I originally started on Cisco and moved to Ubiquiti later.
A Coming Shift
During the live stream, I asked a simple question I knew the answer to at least partially. It was a request from Discord, about their naming structure.
Ubiquiti follows the naming convention of a certain fruity company.. cough.. Apple.. cough.. cough.. That may add confusion when moving to the enterprise market. I mentioned at the beginning about the U7 Pro AP not being a true Enterprise grade AP.. but it has the word “Pro” in it.. Well let’s add ULTRA and MAX on top to ensure you know it is enterprise grade.. this think is potentially confusing their customer base. I’m not a marketing person, but have had my share of working on advertising. From my limited understanding, you want to avoid confusion as much as possible.
I get that Ubiquiti’s CEO is a former Apple guy that loves Apple products, just look at their boxes. BUT moving from a consumer or small business focus to an enterprise focus requires a shift. Something we have seen that fruit company realized with their naming convention. We didn’t get the iWatch or iTV but the Apple Watch and Apple TV. I saw an article yesterday that said it’s time for a rebrand of the iPhone to move away from the “i” part by the very person who originally built the brand. While I don’t know if I agree with him for that powerhouse of a product brand, I’m wondering if Ubiquiti is approaching a need for a similar shift. Maybe they are realizing that themselves with the naming of their Enterprise Fortress Gateway instead of another flavor of Dream Machine.
Post MFD11 Thoughts
I’m really excited to see the direction that Ubiquiti is headed. I think there has been a need for such a shift for them for a while. I personally have told many people that Ubiquiti is very much situated in the Prosumer space. I’ve avoided recommending them to my schools and charter schools although that pricing is tempting. I’m hopeful this new direction can one day change that mentality.
Arguably, with a new focus will come a pricing scheme that is more on par with the other vendors, sans the subscription fees. That is where Ubiquiti is going to win! Just like Apple, challenge the status quo, and you might just come out beating the pack. Or at the very least challenge the industry.
Check out all the presentations on Tech Field Day’s website:
