The Location Team-Up

PanGo Networks will be bringing is PanOS Location Management Platform and PanGo Locator application to the new Location Appliance created by Newbury Networks. Both companies are located near Boston and have worked in the position/location-based tracking and security areas using Wi-Fi networks for years.

"This is about a new level of cooperation," says Chuck Conley, Newbury's spokesperson. "Companies that competed in the past see this as a win/win for both. For PanGo to have its applications run on more than just a platform from Cisco — they can get into more diverse networking environments."

Newbury announced its $15,000 Location Appliance in early November this year. It's a direct competitor to the Cisco 2710 Location Appliance, meant to work with any other non-Cisco Wi-Fi infrastructure out there. Newbury claims it  has better accuracy with the ability to track 2,000 devices per appliance.

Newbury will uses PanGo's own open provider interface to send location data to the PanOS. The deal is a mainly one of cooperative marketing, where PanGo customers will be informed of the appliance as an option, and Newbury will let its customers know it can utilize the PanOS. Conley says, "I wouldn't preclude deeper integration in the future."

"The market has been clamoring for better, accurate location data, besides what's out there from folks like Cisco," says Conley. "This deal is a good proof-point that there's other appliances for location data."

The Newbury Appliance runs the Linux OS and is maintained in a partnership with rPath using its rPath Appliance Agent, which also can support branded versions of the appliance built by OEMs. Trapeze Networks was the first company to sign on as an OEM to build in the Newbury technology.