Business-Class Wireless LANs Category Profile

As wireless technology becomes more pervasive in the enterprise, wireless LANs are becoming a frequently used alternative to traditional wired networks. Not that there still aren't plenty of CAT-5 cables snaking through walls, under desks and behind printer cabinets. But improvements in wireless functionality and security mean that more organizations are using this equipment for their headquarters and remote offices.

The 2006 VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC) survey of solution providers' satisfaction with vendors, however, shows that wireless vendors still have considerable room for improvement. While the top companies in most categories will occasionally see scores in the 80s, specifically in Product Innovation, the scores in Business-Class Wireless LANs hovered distinctly lower. This suggests that solution providers are content with, but underwhelmed by, their vendors' performance.

Cisco Systems pulled off the somewhat rare feat of winning this category twice, in a way. Cisco itself scored the highest overall, nosing out its own Linksys division. Linksys originally was broken out from Cisco to be primarily a consumer-focused network-products developer, but the maturation of networking technology, combined with demand from small businesses and consumers for enterprise-class performance, means Linksys' reach now extends far beyond its initial target market.

"There are two particular drivers that are directing this move toward pervasive wireless," says Alan Cohen, senior director of mobility solutions at Cisco. "The first one is a kind of democratization of wireless technology--with the advent of the 802.11 technologies--that's moving into the marketplace. We've seen a rapid growth where mobility-enabled devices, as well as mobility-enabled networks, came initially into the home and are moving increasingly into the enterprise and metro arenas."

Just behind those two is Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve, which year after year seems to finish just behind Cisco in this ARC category. This isn't a knock, as ProCurve remains solid despite questions about whether HP will sell off the division.

A closer look at the scores shows ProCurve actually outpaced Cisco in many of the criteria in Product Innovation, Support and Partnership, albeit narrowly in some cases. Partners ranked ProCurve's quality/reliability as the best (76 on a 100-point scale), and ProCurve scored significantly higher than Cisco on presales support (70 to 65), marketing support (67 to 62), partner portal (66 to 60) and ease of doing business (69 to 64). In fact, Cisco placed third in Product Innovation, Support and Partnership.

And those scores come in a segment where the stakes are high. In the first quarter of 2006, worldwide Wi-Fi revenue increased by 21 percent year-over-year, up from $738 million in the first quarter of 2005, according to market research firm In-Stat.

There were also quite a few subpar scores in Partnership and Support. D-Link, for example, scored particularly low in services engagement opportunity (55 points), as did Netgear (57) and 3Com (52).

3Com, which once ran neck and neck with Cisco in the race for networking dominance, is now struggling to maintain its also-ran status, and its ARC scores show a company in decline with no real silver lining.

Where Cisco crushed its competitors, as it so often does, was on the Loyalty scores. Linksys, ProCurve and D-Link all scored 80 or above on solution providers' likelihood to remain a partner, which is a stellar rating, but Cisco's 91 is off the charts. Cisco's unusually high score is a tribute to the vendor's ability to deliver on its unified-communications vision while keeping partners happy with its channel program.