Shasta Cloud

The problem: Managed Service Providers juggled 4–20 vendor systems to manage enterprise networks, wasting hours on context-switching and troubleshooting across fragmented tools. The insight: MSPs didn't need a better dashboard - they needed one dashboard. And LiDAR-based spatial mapping could replace the guesswork in access point deployment. The result: Deployment time cut from 30 to 10 minutes per access point, 50% cost reduction vs vendor hardware, adopted by 7+ global enterprise clients.

I spent the first three weeks shadowing MSP engineers at two partner companies. The pattern was consistent: a technician would start in Cisco Meraki to check network health, switch to a vendor-specific portal to troubleshoot an access point, open a spreadsheet to cross-reference the deployment map, then call a colleague to confirm the physical layout of the site.

Four tools, three context switches, one troubleshooting task.

When I asked what frustrated them most, nobody mentioned missing features. Every complaint was about fragmentation:

The tools weren't bad individually. They were bad together, and no single solution covered the scope, so MSPs were forced to use all of them.

I audited three dominant tools MSPs were using - Cisco Meraki, Ubiquiti UniFi, and SolarWinds. I ran identical tasks in each: deploy an access point, diagnose a connectivity issue, generate a client report.

None of them addressed the core workflow: see the site, place the APs, deploy, verify.

The first wireframe explored a site-centric layout — the network topology mapped to the physical floor plan, not the vendor hierarchy.

The second iteration refined the three-panel layout: site selector on the left, spatial view in the center, device details on the right.

I ran contextual inquiry sessions with 8 MSP technicians across 3 companies. Every session followed the same format: watch them complete a real task, then ask what they would change.

Three findings redefined the scope:

1. Navigation should mirror physical sites, not vendor menus. Technicians thought in terms of buildings and floors, not Cisco vs. Ubiquiti.
2. Deployment is a spatial problem. Placing access points requires knowing the floor plan, signal coverage, and cable routes — not just device specs.
3. Status needs to be glanceable. Operators wanted a single screen showing site health, not a dashboard per vendor.

The venue overview replaced the vendor-switching workflow. Every site appeared as a card with real-time health status — green, amber, red — and one tap drilled into the full topology.

The LiDAR-based layout tool let technicians upload a floor plan and auto-detect wall positions. From there, they could drag APs into position and see estimated coverage before deploying a single device.

Once the layout was set, adding access points was a single drag-and-drop. The system automatically assigned IP ranges, suggested channel configurations, and flagged conflicts with existing hardware.

Deployment time dropped from 30 minutes per access point to 10 minutes — a 3x improvement. Cost reductions hit 50% compared to vendor-locked hardware. The platform was adopted by 7+ global enterprise clients within the first year.

The project taught me that the hardest design problems aren't about features. They're about consolidation — making five tools feel like one without losing the depth that made each of them useful.