How Impekable’s flexible design and development services helped Zingbox pivot its IoT Guardian SaaS concept to a $75M acquisition by Palo Alto Networks.
Zingbox, now a Palo Alto Networks company, was initially founded by former Aruba Networks and Aerohive employees who saw an opportunity to bring new networking solutions to the consumer market.
Thanks to the team’s proven domain expertise, they were able to secure funding for their early-stage developments. However, because they had not yet aligned on a path forward, bringing on full-time design and development resources would have been premature. For this reason, the team turned to Impekable to provide flexible design support as their concepts evolved.
According to Mayuresh Ektare, formerly the VP of Product Marketing at Zingbox, “We are a very lean startup with few full-time employees. We quickly recognized a need for exploring various design concepts before starting development. As we started putting our solutions together, we were trying to figure out which market segments they would accurately fit in. We explored different verticals like manufacturing and healthcare. We wanted to put together certain design solutions, take them to customers, come back with feedback, and retread them on a rapid basis.”
Initially, Zingbox’s founders had intended to develop and launch a direct-to-consumer (D2C) version of the mobile-first router technology they had formerly deployed to business customers through Aruba Networks.
To help validate this concept, Zingbox’s leadership invited Impekable to design the consumer-facing app’s initial screens, as well as a light mobile app version to be used as a proof of concept (POC).
Compared to the traditional approach of configuring and managing routers through a designated website, this initial concept put control into consumers’ hands. Not only would customers be able to set up their routers from the mobile app Impekable designed, but they would also be empowered to monitor its usage, add users, and even detect network intrusions.
According to Ektare, “Impekable quickly explored various design solutions and put together prototypes. Impekable helped us understand the market, quickly presenting results from a prototype perspective. We would then take that output to customers in order to get quick feedback.”
“Early on, Impekable also helped us put together a mobile application when we didn’t have in-house developers,” he continued. “When we had a need for front-end or mobile app development, we also received resources from Impekable.”
When this initial D2C concept failed to gain traction, Zingbox pivoted quickly to explore a new solution involving the use of mesh networks.
Again, Impekable was able to help bring this vision to life through early design mockups — all without requiring Zingbox to invest resources into bringing a full-time design team onboard.
Though Zingbox’s mesh network concept did not take off either, the team hit on a winning concept when it moved into the realm of enterprise IoT security.
At the time, Zingbox’s executive leadership was watching the rapid expansion of IoT devices in enterprise spaces, as well as the significant security risks they could have. These threats were particularly concerning for medical services and healthcare providers, where successful intrusions could wreak havoc on hospital systems and even cause harm to patients.
These observations led to the development of IoT Guardian, a B2B SaaS product specifically intended to monitor the activity of IoT devices and prevent catastrophic security breaches in healthcare systems.
To bring IoT Guardian to life, Impekable designed an enterprise-level, web app dashboard with a clean interface and data visualization features that were specifically geared toward the needs of healthcare facilities.
Because we truly acted as Zingbox’s ‘one-stop shop’ for design work, we also supported the team in crafting the IoT Guardian website, sales sheets, and even collateral for an industry trade show.
Zingbox’s IoT Guardian product met such a clear need in the healthcare market that the technology was swiftly acquired by Palo Alto Networks in a $75M purchase.
In a press release issued at the time, Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, stated, “We are excited to welcome Zingbox to Palo Alto Networks. With Zingbox’s IoT capabilities, we will provide a first-of-its-kind subscription for our Next-Generation Firewall and Cortex platforms that gives customers the ability to gain control, visibility, and security of their connected devices at scale.”
The final iteration of Zingbox’s IoT Guardian solution — currently delivered through Palo Alto Networks — includes several features geared intentionally to the needs of medical and healthcare organizations.
This feature encompasses device discovery, identification, classification, and grouping, delivered through a UI console that allows users to manage Inspectors and IoT data in the Zingbox Cloud.
The Security module facilitates easy risk assessment and threat detection workflows, in addition to providing full visibility into network behavior.
IoT Guardian’s full-featured analytics application delivers optimization intelligence and utilization reporting to medical and healthcare users.
Finally, IoT Guardian includes a security operations center (SOC) dashboard that enables users to easily track security events.
If you’re a funded startup that hasn’t yet achieved product-market fit, Impekable offers flexible design and development resources that adapt to your needs — from initial iterations to exits and beyond.
Reach out for more information on our design and development work for startups.
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