Case Study: Museum of Flight achieves secure, reliable Wi‑Fi with WatchGuard

Secure Wi-Fi Helps Museum Soar to New Heights

The Museum of Flight, a non-profit in Seattle that welcomes more than 500,000 visitors a year, needed to replace unreliable Wi‑Fi and aging firewall infrastructure. Its previous HP access points struggled with guest demand and produced limited analytics, while Fortinet firewalls lacked timely log visibility and strong encryption. WatchGuard was brought in to help modernize both secure Wi‑Fi and network security.

WatchGuard implemented AP120 access points managed through Wi‑Fi Cloud, along with M500, M300, and XTM 850 firewalls and Dimension reporting. The new setup delivered fast, reliable guest Wi‑Fi, actionable analytics, and WIPS protection with nearly zero false positives, while improving visibility and management for the IT team. As a result, the museum became Friendly Wi‑Fi accredited and better protected the 140,000 students who visit each year, with Hunter Hughes noting that WatchGuard’s support and scalability made the deployment easy.

Museum of Flight

Hunter Hughes

Director of IT