WLAN shakeout ahead

Network World - The wireless LAN switch market is facing a major shakeout in 2004, so IT executives shopping for 802.11 gear need to take special care to pick an architecture that suits their long-term plans as well as a vendor with staying power.
The big buzz these days is coming from a swarm of start-up WLAN switch vendors, such as Airespace Inc., Aruba Wireless Networks Inc., Trapeze Networks Inc. and Vivato Inc. These companies burst onto the scene this year with products that manage wireless security, radio frequency (RF) and roaming -- three critical needs that traditional switches don't handle. They are joined in this market by two established wireless vendors, Proxim Corp. and Symbol Technologies Inc.
While these companies are shipping products and have the early lead, the wired switch vendors, heavyweights such as Cisco Systems Inc., Extreme Networks Inc. and Nortel Networks Ltd., are coming on fast. They soon will catch up on features and will stress the value of dealing with one vendor for wired and wireless LAN equipment, software and support -- a powerful combination in the long term, analysts say.
So how will this all shake out? "There will be a serious dropout of the start-up vendors," says Ken Dulaney, a mobile computing analyst at Gartner Inc. "You can't survive on wireless alone. The clear winners are going to be the ones with an established wire presence."
Some financial strains are already starting to show. Both Trapeze and Vivato laid off employees in recent months, citing slower-than-anticipated sales.
On the other hand, it's clear that over the long term, the call for enterprise wireless will continue to increase. Users accustomed to the convenience of wireless at home will demand it at work, analysts say. Plus, 95% of corporate notebooks will ship with wireless capability by 2005, according to Meta Group Inc. So IT organizations will need to move beyond providing WLANs in spot locations such as conference rooms and develop enterprise WLAN strategies.
However, as many IT departments learned in early WLAN rollouts, managing access points can devour time and dollars, and management woes only increase as a company scales the technology.

That's where Airespace, Proxim, Trapeze and the others come in, offering wireless switches for centrally managing RF, security and roaming. In this crowded field, Aruba and Symbol deserve close attention, analysts and corporate customers say.
San Jose-based Aruba stands out because its switch and access points do an excellent job monitoring the air, and it offers customers more deployment flexibility and autoconfiguration capabilities than some