Free Wi-Fi Connection Available to Skiers in Val Thorens Through Aerohive Wireless LAN

Facilities Allow Skiers Access to Mobile Services on Slopes

Sunnyvale, Calif. and Paris, France — April 11, 2012 — Aerohive Networks, the pioneer in controller-less Wi-Fi and cloud-enabled networking, today announced that Val Thorens, the highest ski resort in Europe, has deployed Aerohive’s WLAN solution at its ski lifts. Implemented by IT partners Soluceo and Scientific Equipment, the WLAN provides free Wi-Fi access to skiers and visitors to the resort. 

News Facts

  • Val Thorens is part of the largest ski area in the world, The 3 Valleys. More than 70% of its visitors are foreign tourists, many of whom bring mobile devices to the resort and expect to access email and social networks.
     
  • The resort had a Wi-Fi network for internal administrative use, but wanted to expand the network to offer skiers and visitors internet access on the slopes.  In doing so, tourists can use free Wi-Fi rather than incur expensive 3G roaming costs. The existing Wi-Fi network was difficult to administer: Val Thorens’ IT team needed a centralised solution that could be remotely managed, and was cost-effective to deploy.
     
  • Val Thorens consulted its IT service provider, Soluceo, which recommended two WLAN solutions, one of which was Aerohive. Of particular interest to the IT team was Aerohive’s Cooperative Control architecture; its access points automatically create mesh network connections to recover from component failures without the need to deploy redundant systems, all while keeping the network wireless.  For a ski resort, this helps the IT team to maintain Wi-Fi availability with minimal effort.
     
  • A pilot of the technology was deployed by reseller Scientific Equipment in December 2010, followed by a full roll-out to all ski lifts in November 2011. The solution includes the HiveManager Virtual Management Appliance on VMware and HiveAP340s. It also supports Val Thoren’s Netinary internet control application.
     
  • With Aerohive, in contrast to the old network, after initial configuration, deployment takes only 15 minutes for each new HiveAP and any modifications can be carried out remotely via centralised administration software. It is this aspect that makes rapid response possible regardless of the weather conditions, a fact that is much appreciated by Val Thoren’s IT team.
     
  • In place for a year, the service has been quickly adopted by tourists, as evidenced by the steadily increasing connection rate. Accessible to tourists from 8am to 5pm, the resort now sees around one hundred connections a day with each one averaging 10 minutes. The wireless LAN will soon be extended to the Orelle resort to allow tourists to connect from a restaurant terrace.
     
  • To read the full Val Thorens case study, please visit: http://www.aerohive.com/resources/val-thorens-ski-resort

Comments

“We want to offer visitors the best services to facilitate their stay in the resort.We are anticipating their needs by offering them access to Wi-Fi on the ski lifts,” says Eric Bonnel, Sales and Marketing Director of ski lift company SETAM.

“Thanks to its easy deployment and use, we can anticipate future upgrades to our solution with no additional investment,” adds Elvis Hudry, SETAM Networks and Systems Administrator, who is in charge of the project.

About Aerohive Networks

Aerohive Networks reduces the cost and complexity of today’s networks with cloud-enabled, distributed Wi-Fi and routing solutions for enterprises and mid-market companies including branch offices and teleworkers. Aerohive’s award-winning cooperative control Wi-Fi architecture, public or private cloud-enabled network management, routing and VPN solutions eliminate costly controllers and single points of failure. This gives its customers mission critical reliability with granular security and policy enforcement and the ability to start small and expand without limitations. Aerohive was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. The company's investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northern Light Venture Capital and New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA). For more information, please visit www.aerohive.com, call us at 408-510-6100, follow us on Twitter @Aerohive, subscribe to our blog or become a fan on our Facebook page.

###