ChannelPro events afford me an amazing opportunity: meeting up-and-coming leaders in the IT channel. Dallin Kauffman, vice of business development for Alta Labs, sat down with me at ChannelPro LIVE: Dallas to discuss how his company is contributing to a remarkable boom in networking hardware. According to Statista data, the hardware infrastructure market expected to approach $52 billion by the end of 2024.
Alta Labs was founded in 2022 and has quickly gained attention for its innovative, high-performance, and affordable networking solutions. The vendor is turning heads with recent product launches, including access points, switches, and one of the most talked about new routers on the market.
As a result, Alta Labs is positioning itself as an MSP-friendly alternative to many larger, well-established players.
Below is my one-on-one interview with Kauffman, lightly edited for clarity.
Great to talk with you Dallin. For MSPs who aren’t familiar with Alta, can you give us the 30-second elevator pitch?
“We’re a new networking vendor bringing some much-needed innovation to a market that’s grown a bit stagnant with the same players over the last couple of decades. We’re focused on providing unique innovation and disruption, along with strong stability and free phone support directly from us.”
What is the “killer hardware” in your networking hardware offering?
“We’re just launching our first router, Route10, adding to our existing lineup of access points and switches. It’s the most affordable 10 Gigabit router on the market. It includes strong security features as well. The co-founder of pfSense, Chris Buechler, joined our team this year to develop it.”
Dallin Kauffman
Are you channel-only or primarily selling through the MSP channel?
“We’re channel-only. A big focus for us is being a channel-friendly alternative in this market. Many vendors are going direct to consumer, but we’re committed to the channel. Our parent company started 24 years ago in the pro AV market, selling speakers, amplifiers, things like that. They were founded by integrators who were frustrated with vendors that didn’t understand their challenges. Being channel-friendly is in our roots.”
Do you have a channel program that educates and supports MSPs?
“Yes, we have a partner program. The more Alta products you install, the more you can earn back through a distributor credit. You also get prioritized phone support. We’re working on building an educational platform and currently offer free educational content on our YouTube channel. We’ll transition this into a certified program soon.”
What’s your take on where the market is right now, particularly with hardware trends?
“Hardware is moving toward Wi-Fi 7, and we’ve built [those] features into our current Wi-Fi 6 access points. For example, our AP6 Pro includes 4K QAM, a key Wi-Fi 7 feature, allowing for ultra-fast speeds at close range. So, our existing access points will continue to perform well as Wi-Fi 7 becomes mainstream.
“We’re also working on a Wi-Fi 7 access point and focusing on faster speeds, like our 10 Gigabit router, which is disruptively affordable without sacrificing performance or reliability.”
Is speed the main thing that people are interested in?
“Speed, reliability, and security are top priorities. Security is a big focus, especially with concerns about products manufactured abroad. As far as trends go, just look at what’s happening in the world. There are increasing concerns about Chinese-made products. As an American brand, we’ve been very conscious of this. We manufacture in Vietnam, but we have full control over the design from the chipset board to the antenna and everything in our controller software. This is definitely not some white-label, off-the-shelf solution. We’re fully hands on with the design to ensure there are no backdoors.”
How do AI and automation fit into your strategy?
“AI is definitely part of the future, and we’re exploring how it fits into our roadmap. It’s something we’re discussing internally, though we’re still figuring out the best approach for our products.”
Alta Labs’ Route10 10 GB router
Tell me about your experience at ChannelPro events. What’s it been like? What’s the MSP engagement like?
“It’s been great. This is our first conference, and we’ve had some quality conversations. I’m looking forward to more engagement later today.”
If I’m with a small or midsized MSP and I’m trying to scale my business, what’s your advice?
“One way we’re creating disruption is by providing new income opportunities through carrier offloading, similar to an Airbnb model. You have an asset you’re lending out to the market and getting income from. But instead of a home with Airbnb, it’s your network infrastructure. You’re lending it out to carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and others. They’re paying you for every gigabyte they’re offloading onto your network.
“For them, it’s cheaper than having clients connect to cell phone towers, and it solves connectivity issues. For example, you could be in the middle of any major city, walk inside a building, and lose connectivity. That’s a problem everywhere.
“With our setup, you can create a network and segment it away from your normal Wi-Fi network. You can rate-limit it if necessary and provide an offloading option for users, like AT&T — all while making money from it. Since you’re already installing the network on these commercial projects, you might as well take advantage of this free opportunity to get a passive income.”
Images: iStock
