Ubiquiti's offering of the UISP product has gone through a lot of different changes of the years. The main idea hasn't changed that much, ever since Ubiquiti released the original version of airControl back in 2011 the product has always been a management platform for its airMAX and other provider devices.

History

In 2016, Ubiquiti offered airControl v2 which took the ideas from the first version of airContol and refined it, added some extra stats and made it easier to use. The integrated IPERF testing was sadly removed but it set the foundation for future products.

Shortly after airControl v2 was released, the company delved into a hardware appliance called the CRM-Point. This device used the hardware from the new at the time, 1st generation cloud key and ran the UCRM-Control software and could manage airMAX devices.

However, due to limited hardware horsepower, this product couldn't manage many devices at all before crashing and rebooting and was ultimately discontinued.

2017

Then, in 2017 Ubiquiti released the very first version of UNMS, which has since been renamed to UISP. UNMS v0 was based on airControl v2 but had a much easier to understand user interface and could be self-hosted - something HostiFi did a year later. UCRM 2.0 was also available, a free to use and advanced billing and helpdesk system for WISPs.

2019

In 2019, Ubiquiti released UNMS v1 and contained a newer version of UCRM and was integrated into the UNMS application. Later that year, Ubiquiti started offering free to use UNMS hosting, however you needed 10 or more devices adopted within the first month for it to be available.

2021

In January 2021, Ubiquiti renamed UNMS to UISP which has since been used on hardware devices and makes the difference between UniFi and the ISP provider devices easier to differentiate. Ubiquiti launched the UISP Router at the same time.

Why do you need UISP?

With the history out of the way, we can now move onto why you would even need to use UISP. For the vast majority of the compatible devices, the UISP application isn't really needed. With the airMAX, UFiber, airFiber and other devices they all each have their own user interfaces and can run absolutely fine without a controller.

While this has been the case for a long time, we are now starting to see the UISP controller be a requirement for newer devices, such as the UISP Switch, UISP Router and the other upcoming devices Ubiquiti has planned. With these devices, you can set them up on a mobile device using the UISP app, but if you need to make any future configuration changes then the UISP controller is required - as each device lacks a local GUI.

Remote Management

For MSP and IT service providers, using the UISP application with anything from airMAX point-to-point wireless devices and EdgeMAX routers can be extremely useful to manage those devices externally, without the need for a VPN. UISP even provides backup files for those devices and can be downloaded and pushed to replacement hardware, if needed.

UISP can be configured to email you when any devices go offline, reboot and then come back online.

WISPs

Having worked at a WISP myself, we used UISP for the remote management of 1000s of Ubiquti devices. Ranging from airMAX, UFiber, airFiber and more. WISPs can benefit from using something like UISP as it scalable as you bring more devices online and can be very easy to use for everyone talking to customers. There are maps to show network topology, easy alerts for your NOC team and support for the EdgePower UPS devices - so you can be notified about power issues, before it affects your customers.

For WISP operators, the UISP mobile app can give a lot of flexibility to installers and remote technicians too. The app can be used to configure a new airMAX device using the integrated wireless chip, get it online in UISP and add it to the customer site using the GPS from the smartphone.

HostiFi

Contact HostiFi for all your UniFi and UISP hosting needs at support@hostifi.com, or by using the live chat on our website. HostiFi Pro offers professional network services, specialising in Ubiquiti hardware and software.