If you are a professional photographer or even an amateur like me, you want to have ready access to various control dials on your camera to capture the moment perfectly. Professional cameras provide high level of control to get the best outcome. But there are times when you want to put the camera and the lens in Auto mode or wish that the camera could automate some decisions that make your workflow easier.

Likewise, Cisco Wireless LAN products provides the level of quality, functionality and control that is unmatched and hands-down the best enterprise wireless networking portfolio in the industry. But there are scenarios where it is preferable to expedite wireless configuration with best practices automatically enabled and easy access to data to simplify monitoring and troubleshooting workflow. For example, a small business owner manages his own network or in a K-12 a librarian acting like a part-time IT administrator. This not only provides operational efficiencies for the IT organization but also improves end-user and partner experience.

Cisco WLAN Express Setup is an attempt in this direction. It is now available on 2500 Series Controller (CT2504) starting with software release 7.6.120.0.

It includes three components

• Easy-to-use setup wizard:This eliminates the need for console cable and command line setup. Instead, 3-step web-wizard is used to quickly boot strap a Controller and configure employee and Guest WLAN out of the box.
  
• An intuitive monitoring dashboard:This gives a quick look into the network, which helps easily monitor and troubleshoot the network.
  
• Best Practices enabled by default:Several Cisco recommended best practices are enabled by default. These include
  • Band Select
  • Radio Resource Management
  • Clean Air and intrusion detection
  • Application Visibility
  • Device Classification and Policy Classification Engine
  • Bonjour Service Directory
  • Internet only Guest Access Control List

  Note: Command line setup using console cable and auto-install functionalities are retained and above configurations only get applied when Cisco WLAN Express Setup is used.

  Just 3-steps to get wireless network configured
  

Check out the Cisco WLAN Express Setup in action:

If you already have CT2504 and make use of all components of Cisco WLAN Express Setup, simply upgrade to 7.6.120.0 or later and do factory reset. If you don't want to reset your controller and only interested in the monitoring dashboard, you can now do that starting with 8.0 software release.

For more details click here