Partners Look To New Colubris CEO To Bring Company Into Growth Phase

WLAN startup Colubris Networks has sailed through rough financial waters in recent weeks, laying off 10 percent of its staff in a cost-cutting move and parting ways with longtime president and CEO Barry Fougere. But partners, insisting that Colubris' technology is solid, remain optimistic that successor Robert Eisenberg will get the company back on track.

Some solution providers expressed hope that Eisenberg will help the company evolve past its startup phase into growth.

"We've been waiting patiently for the execution team to move in and the building team to move out," said Phil O'Reilly, CEO of Solunet, a West Melbourne, Fla.-based Colubris partner. "The technology that Colubris offers is cutting edge and well-thought-of in the industry, but without execution, what good is it?"

Wallace Olsen, principal at Ascio Wireless, a Colubris partner in Walpole, Mass., said demand is strong for products such as the MSC-3300 MultiService Controller, which combines key network and management features into a single box. In addition to an integrated access point with dual 802.11a/b/g radio, the MSC-3300 includes a gateway, routing capability and security features. "It basically does everything," Olsen said.

Although Colubris products are generally more expensive than those of other WLAN vendors, they offer advanced features such as secure authentication, authorization and accounting, which are necessary for compliance with HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley, said Darrell Alfaro, president of Moonblink Communications, a Colubris partner in Santa Clara, Calif. This makes Colubris' infrastructure appropriate for deployment in schools and government buildings, he added.

Colubris has good traction on the product side and in lead generation, and according to Eisenberg, the company is well-equipped to pursue a larger share of the enterprise market. He expects to see 80 percent to 90 percent growth in the enterprise WLAN space in 2006.

Eisenberg said Colubris will be evaluating its existing partners in terms of productivity and performance. "We plan to add partners as we need to, and revisit our existing ones. If we have to make adjustments, we will," he said. Prior to joining Colubris, Waltham, Mass., Eisenberg was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Alta Communications, a Boston-based private equity firm. He also founded and spent four years as CEO of Navisite, an infrastructure management service provider in Andover, Mass.

Tweet

   

More Networking