Magic Quadrant for the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure

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■■The focus on Meru's virtual cell architecture makes it appear proprietary to clients, especiallywhen the major marketing feature of being easy to use is met competitively by managed serviceor cloud offerings with functionality and pricing.Meru is a relatively small vendor with limited sales resources, but its products are beinginstalled globally through partners. Although current reports of support capabilities arefavorable, large enterprises should ensure that Meru can continue to provide the required levelsof support.Motorola SolutionsMotorola Solutions is a wireless overlay vendor with limited wired-port connectivity that can provideend-to-end solutions through strategic wired partnerships with Brocade and Extreme. Motorola hasa strong global channel organization that delivers approximately 80% of its revenue.Motorola is a clear leader in WLAN within the retail and government vertical industries, but alsoservices hospitality, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and logistics. Motorola should be onthe shortlist for any WLAN requirements in retail, government and other vertical industries that havedata collection or heavy security and analytical requirements.Strengths■■■Motorola Solutions is a leader in delivering market-leading, vertical-market-based solutions inretail and state/local governments, many based on an end-to-end product offering, includinginfrastructure, voice and data handheld devices, and management, security and forensicssoftware. Organizations in these vertical industries should include Motorola on their shortlists.Motorola is one of the few vendors that offers best-of-breed infrastructure planning,management, security and analytics software, much of it gleaned from acquisitions (AirDefense,Wireless Valley and Mesh Networks), the majority of which has been integrated into onesoftware suite.Motorola continues to have a strong and loyal channel organization that has the ability to deployglobally. Many channel partners can provide value-added services that allow them to deployend-to-end solutions in target vertical markets, such as retail in-store applications ortransportation direct to store delivery.Cautions■■When choosing security options, enterprises should evaluate the various tiers of securityofferings Motorola provides native to its WiNG 5 Controllers and APs, in addition to theAirDefense Solution.Motorola and its OEM partners have been slow in executing a wired LAN and WLAN strategy,and do not currently deliver a differentiated level of integration or single-pane-of-glassmanagement for enterprises looking to converge their access layers.Page 18 of 30Gartner, Inc. | G00234282
■■Motorola offers controller/branch-in-a-box and controllerless solutions. Customers should askfor details on pricing when investigating these solutions for their requirements. Enterprises alsoshould evaluate Motorola's cloud-based and managed service offerings when evaluatingsolutions.While Motorola has guest access and policy enforcement capabilities, enterprises with theserequirements should require the vendor to supply sufficient documentation or demonstrations ofits capabilities, because the company's standard documentation on this functionality forenterprise deployments, including on its website, is sparse.NetgearNetgear is one of the smaller WLAN vendors in the market, but has a competitive switchingbusiness delivered 100% through a global channel. North America and European partners deliveralmost 90% of the company's revenue. Netgear is one of the few vendors whose 802.11a/b/g salesstill outnumber 802.11n.The controller-based architecture integrates many network services into a controller platform, suchas guest access, authentication, authorization and network management. It is an appropriate choicefor SMBs and branch offices, as well as the education, government, hospitality and retail marketsectors.Strengths■■Netgear's lifetime warranty and inclusion of on-site support mean that enterprises canimplement a known brand with a low risk of failure, which is very important in the small, midsize,remote and branch office market.The breadth of the Netgear product family provides an affordable solution that focuses onsimplicity for configuration and management of wired and wireless products at the edge of thenetwork.Cautions■■■Competitive vendors can deploy wireless solutions without a dedicated controller, causingNetgear bids to be more expensive than other offerings, especially in small, midsize, remoteand branch office wired and wireless solutions.Netgear has a strong global reseller channel, but Gartner rarely sees it on the shortlist for wiredor wireless inquiries for opportunities within the enterprise.Organizations looking to address onboarding for BYOD or to implement policy enforcementneed to evaluate current Netgear functionality to ensure that it meets their business needs.Gartner, Inc. | G00234282 Page 19 of 30
Page 3: ■Location-based services, context
Page 6 and 7: Strengths■■■ALU has a strong
Page 8 and 9: ■■■Avaya's heritage with voic
Page 10: ■Cisco has refreshed and extended
Page 13 and 14: ■■Extreme needs to develop more
Page 15 and 16: ■■Huawei can deploy a single ar
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Page 21 and 22: classrooms, auditoriums and enterta
Page 23 and 24: Gartner evaluates technology provid
Page 25 and 26: Business Model: This includes the p
Page 27 and 28: mobility requirements change the wa
Page 29 and 30: Marketing Strategy: A clear, differ

Magic Quadrant for the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure

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