March 11, 2014 Leave a Comment
Avatar
Networking

Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to the 7.4 MD Software Release

As the famous saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait”. Delayed gratification – person’s ability to forgo a smaller reward now for a larger reward in the future – has been linked to better life outcomes as demonstrated by the often cited Stanford Marshmallow experiment and others. In most cases though, it requires a degree of self-control not easily achievable in today’s fast paced, ever-changing world with new mobile devices, protocols and technologies.

If you are one of the Cisco Wireless customers currently deploying Release 7.0 MD and waiting for the next Cisco Wireless Software Maintenance Deployment Release, the wait is over!

Release 7.4.121.0 has achieved Maintenance Deployment (MD) status.

Release 7.4.121.0 is the recommended MD release for all non-802.11ac deployments. For 802.11ac deployments, Release 7.6.110.0 (Release 7.6 Maintenance release 1) is the recommended release.

For additional details on Software Release Recommendations and Guidelines, see Guidelines for Cisco Wireless Software Release Migration

Below are top 10 reasons (in no particular order) to upgrade from the current 7.0 MD release to the latest 7.4MD Release.

10. FlexConnect (improved and rebranded H-REAP) with efficient AP upgrade across WAN, BYOD policies support, Flex ACLs and split tunneling.

9. A virtual footprint controller (vWLC) and larger scale with 8500 series, 7500 series, WiSM2 controllers.

8. BYOD policies with Integrated WLC Policy Engine and Identity Services Engine (ISE) for Advanced Profiling and device onboarding.

7. IPv6 support for client mobility, First hop security, client management and IPv6 packet optimization.

6. High Availability for faster upgrades with pre-image download, Minimal outages with Stateful SwitchOver (SSO) and no duplicate licensing for standby controller with a HA SKU.

5. Bonjour Services Gateway for Apple device services and policies across L3 domain.

4. Application Visibility and Control (AVC) to detect 1000s applications on your wireless network and apply intelligent actions.

3. Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX) enables organizations increase efficiencies by better understanding customer behavior with location analytics.

2. Support for a new generation (Gen2) 802.11n Access points including the award winning AP3600 series with flexible modular design.

And the #1 reason to upgrade to 7.4 MD release…

1. You’ve earned it. It’s about time! There is a fine line between procrastination and delayed gratification!

Additional Links and resources:

  1. Guidelines for Cisco Wireless Software Release Migration
  2. Cisco Wireless Solutions Software Compatibility Matrix
  3. Release Notes for Cisco Wireless Controllers