Living In The New Age Of Voice And Wireless

While voice over IP was capturing most of the attention among VARs in this year's Networking State of Technology survey, other technologies such as wireless LANs and mobile computing were holding ground as well.

In fact, wireless was on the menu at more than 70 percent of networking VARs, second only to the basic network infrastructure. And while only 12 percent of networking VARs said they planned to add wireless technologies next year, perhaps pointing to some saturation in the space, those VARs looking to get into networking for the first time picked wireless as their second most likely addition. Some 43 percent of solution providers who currently sell no networking gear or services said they plan to add wireless next year, second only to the popular IP-telephony space.

The moves toward wireless come as VARs eye the growing global market for mobility solutions. According to the Dell'Oro Group's latest quarterly report on the WLAN market, double-digit growth continues, lifting the segment to above $500 million for the first time. Much of that activity is in the Small Office Home Office space, according to Dell'Oro analyst Elmer Choy, who adds that many wireless LAN vendors are now delivering devices that combine wireless routers with broadband modems.

Upping the ante, according to analysts at Lexington, Mass.-based WinterGreen Research, is the stellar performance of WiMAX. Analysts now say this next-generation wireless technology, which barely topped $34 million last year, could reach $19.9 billion by 2011. And the plummeting costs of WiMAX-enabled gear could spark significant expansion of the broader wireless space, analysts say.

While new networking VARs are adding such new technologies as wireless and VoIP at a fairly even rate regardless of their size, that same trend among established networking solution providers is more fragmented. A full 20 percent of midsize and large networking VARs are bolstering their wireless offerings while fewer than 10 percent of small VARs are making the same kinds of moves. This indicates not only the increased complexity of larger wireless engagements but also the addition of new ancillary wireless technologies that handle security, management and integration with existing wired networks, according to analysts.

Proof can be found in the VAR community's view of innovation in wireless networking and mobile computing technologies. Overall, wireless placed a close second to VoIP in perceived innovation at 34 percent to 31 percent, respectively. But among large VARs, those with $10 million in annual revenue or higher, nearly 38 percent saw wireless vendors as the top innovators, while just 35 percent pick VoIP gear makers.

And in those areas of innovation, the VARs surveyed this year overwhelmingly chose security as the most important area of improvement, followed closely by industry standards, operational performance and ease of deployment. As for the top vendor performers in improving Wi-Fi and WiMAX technologies, the solution providers surveyed chose Linksys at the top of the list, followed by Linksys' parent, Cisco. D-Link, Netgear and Hewlett-Packard rounded out the top five, according to the VARBusiness report.