NetMotion, Cradlepoint announce technology alliance

NetMotion and Cradlepoint today announced a technology alliance that is designed to ensure that the companies’ complementary software and hardware products can work well together and that user agencies receive consistent input about best practices for implementing solutions to support broadband communications.

NetMotion CEO Christopher Kennessey said that the alliance is a natural step, because his company’s mobile VPN and diagnostic tools are used by many of the same first-responder agencies that utilize Cradlepoint’s portfolio of mobile broadband routers and network-edge solutions.

“For years, we’ve been friends in the industry, where we’ve had similar customers and the same kind of passion to address similar customer requirements,” Kennessey said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “Because there’s been so much overlap in how we help our customers, we finally came together over the last year to look into how do we form some sort of alliance where—from a technology standpoint—we make sure that the solutions are working seamlessly together for our customers and the administrators that administrate them.”

Donna Johnson, Cradlepoint’s vice president of product and solutions marketing, echoed this sentiment, noting that the alliance reflects the “API-level integration” between the companies. In addition, one goal of the alliance is to cross-train staff about the other company’s capabilities, so they can better advise customers about the best practices to follow when attempting to optimize performance.

“When you talk about software and security, sometimes the messages themselves can sound like they overlap,” Johnson said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “We really wanted to give clarity to our partners, our customers and our individual sales teams, so they understand how our products work together and how they complement one another.

“When we go to the customer, it’s very clear that not only that they do work well together but what each individual product benefit is, so that customers aren’t having to try to figure that out for themselves.”

Johnson said that the cross-training efforts within NetMotion and Cradlepoint have begun, and similar training is planned for the companies dealers and partners in the future.

Kennessey said that the technology alliance between the companies not only is designed to provide end-user customers with a seamless broadband experience today and is expected to guide development of product portfolios in the future.

“The reason we’re working together with all elements of our organizations is to make sure that our joint customers have the best possible experience today, through a product, deployment and support standpoint,” Kennessey said. “And, we’re working really closely—from a product standpoint—to make sure that our roadmaps aligned with the opportunity to look at good interconnects that are going to benefit our customers and create better experiences for them.”

Indeed, Johnson and Kennessey said that NetMotion and Cradlepoint are developing new products to support technologies like 5G, Wi-Fi 6 and private networks that operate on CBRS spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band.