Who are Cradlepoint?
Cradlepoint is a global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions for branch, mobile, and IoT networks.
More than 22,000 businesses and government agencies around the world rely on Cradlepoint to keep critical sites, points of commerce, field workers, vehicles, and IoT devices always connected and secure, including 75% of the world’s top retailers, 50% of the Fortune 100, and first responder agencies in 25 of the largest US cities.
In October 2020, Ericsson completed its acquisition of Cradlepoint to bolster its ongoing strategy of capturing market share in the rapidly expanding 5G enterprise space. Cradlepoint will operate as a stand-alone subsidiary within Ericsson and continue to build on the current market momentum as 5G is speeding up digital transformation and increasing the need for advanced connectivity services for enterprises. Cradlepoint will be part of Ericsson’s Business Area Technologies & New Businesses.
What’s been your biggest achievement so far?
For me, it has to be seeing how rapidly Cradlepoint has grown in Europe in 2020 and the momentum behind this. Despite a challenging year, we have still been able to make three strategic hires in Northern, Southern and Central Europe, broaden our ‘go-to-market’ strategy and actively recruit new partners. We’ve also launched some best in-class products this year, such as the E300 series Enterprise Router which is designed to help organisations expand their physical footprint with high-performance advanced LTE, Wi-Fi, security, and network management requirements at high-traffic pop-up sites, such as testing centres.
Knowing that our technology has actively helped those working tirelessly to mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19, is a huge achievement for us.
What impact has Cradlepoint seen from the Covid-19 pandemic?
We have been well placed to help customers through this difficult time and many of our solutions play a crucial role in helping businesses and government organisations remain nimble so they can adapt and succeed as the new normal evolves.
The E300 series Enterprise Router that I mentioned above supports the increased performance and advanced LTE, Wi-Fi, security, and management requirements of high-traffic pop-up sites, including testing centres, small clinics, and treatment facilities. We’ve also expanded our portfolio of vehicle solutions for the UK emergency services network. The new MC400 Modular Modem is s certified and fully authorised to access the UK’s forthcoming Emergency Services Network (ESN), solidifying Cradlepoint’s status as a premier networking equipment provider to UK emergency services.
As a business, we have ensured we regularly check-in with staff on their mental wellbeing, encouraging a healthy ‘work from anywhere’ culture where staff can remain safe but at their most productive whilst working remotely.
What does future hold for Cradlepoint?
We’ve built teams across EMEA and will continue aggressively in 2021 – versus just making strategic individual hires, which we have made great inroads with this year.
With the massive growth predicted in IoT devices and cloud applications in the coming years, businesses and critical infrastructure providers require advanced connectivity services to deliver faster, secure wireless services - wherever needed and whenever required. We also see a huge opportunity in the enterprise branch connectivity and edge computing market.
The WWAN market is growing rapidly (forecasted at 25%-30% per year to the middle of the decade) driven by the next wave of digital transformations for enterprises. There will be a rich opportunity for us to provide even more subscription-based wireless WAN edge solutions that combine cloud, software-defined networking and 4G LTE/5G technologies to help businesses continue to grow in the coming year. Furthermore, together with Ericsson, we will help communication service providers deliver innovative services to the Enterprise market that unlock the full transformational value of 5G, and to help them monetise network investments. 2021 is set to be an exciting year!