Wi-Fi Management's Next Phase: Aruba Leads the ChargeWi-Fi Management's Next Phase: Aruba Leads the Charge

Have you checked your wireless LAN lately? Chances are it's getting larger and therefore more difficult to manage. Aware of this growing trend, Aruba Networks made a foray into the network management space, one that could pay dividends for the company down the line.

Mobility is all the rage this year. Laptop computers continue to grow in popularity, and a number of businesses hand them, rather than towers, to their employees. Handhelds also are becoming more powerful, and even cell phones are now capable of supporting sophisticated video applications.

As users are untethered from their desks, they need a way to access information as they roam. In response, vendors boosted Wireless LAN bandwidth from 54 Mbps to 100 Mbps, with the advent of the 802.11n standard.

Changes Mean New Challenges
While all of these changes are welcome for small and midsize businesses, they create new challenges. Managing a company's growing web of mobile devices is becoming more complex, and even momentary outages are becoming less tolerable.

Compounding this problem is the way that WLAN suppliers designed their equipment: in a vacuum. These products generate management data that can be read by their own management systems but usually are unable to exchange that data with any other system. As a result, if a company purchases WLAN products from a couple of vendors, it has to deploy and manage a few management systems.

Recognizing these problems, Aruba has tried to establish a beachhead in the market. The company paid $37 million in stock and cash for AirWave Wireless. Rather than deliver access points or switches, that company focused on easing WLAN management functions: its platform manages WLAN devices from Cisco, Aruba, HP ProCurve, Motorola/Symbol, Avaya, Foundry, Proxim, 3Com, Trapeze, and Tropos.

The need to manage multiple types of wireless networks is growing as the market evolves. Increasingly, small and midsize businesses have older wireless LANs running alongside higher-speed networks, a scenario that will increase this year with the arrival of 802.11n products, which support 100 Mbps transmissions.

Broader management capabilities extend beyond wireless LANs. Not only do users want to control different Wi-Fi devices from a central console, but they also will want to use their systems to monitor other types of equipment. New wireless options, such as WiMax, are one likely candidate to be folded under AirWave's management umbrella.

Another plus for Aruba is it now has a new way to differentiate its products. As the market has matured, Wi-Fi vendors have been finding it more difficult to develop unique features. And as such features become more exotic, users become less willing to pay for them. Consequently, suppliers who deliver access points and switches now find themselves caught in commodity price wars, something they have been trying to avoid by constantly developing higher bandwidth products. Rather than compete on lowering costs, Aruba can fall back upon its superior management functions as a means to entice new users or retain existing ones.

Not Many Companies Want to Get Involved
While the need for broader network management platforms seems clear, few other companies -- Wavelink being a prominent one and another potential acquisition target -- are attacking the problem. One reason is the work is time consuming and complex. Another is volume: more small and midsize businesses buy more access points and switches than network management systems.

For the moment at least, Aruba finds itself with a significant product differentiator. It will be interesting to see how competitors respond. Cisco has delivered a broad range of management systems for its voluminous product lines and relies on Cisco Wireless LAN Solutions Engine for WLAN management. But it is doubtful the company will try to stake out the high ground in the Wi-Fi management area; it can afford to wait for someone else to do the pioneering work. Other vendors seem more preoccupied with enhancing their access points and switches than in taking on tedious management challenges.

So at least initially, the purchase appears to be a good move by Aruba. The company has built a growing business by identifying the needs of small and midsize enterprises. It was one of the first vendors to make it simpler for them to deploy Wi-Fi with larger footprints. The vendor also was near the top of the curve in working with voice and video over wireless LANs. Now Aruba has correctly identified management as an important concern for customers and is poised to reap the benefits of that insight.

Paul Korzeniowski is a Sudbury, Mass.-based freelance writer who has been writing about networking issues for two decades. His work has appeared in Business 2.0, Entrepreneur, Investors Business Daily, Newsweek, and information.