SMBs Embrace Wireless Networks

As fears about reliability and security dissipate, and with new products and solutions released each week, the wireless SMB market is becoming the primary focus for more vendors and VARs.

In many ways, the SMB space can be an easier sell than the enterprise because the networks are smaller, more easily managed and don't have to be left behind if a business relocates.

"SMBs more often than not rent their facilities, so it's undesirable for them to make the big infrastructure changes you see with wired networks," says Dan Simone, CTO of WLAN tools developer Trapeze Networks, Pleasanton, Calif. "Wireless fits the bill incredibly well for these companies because they can set up their networks and take them with them when they move."

Some VARs have found an SMB sweet spot by focusing on multitenant office buildings. "It gives the building manager one company that provides the network," says Dominick Arcuri, senior vice president for RCC Consultants, Woodbridge, N.J., which resells Trapeze solutions through its SpotOn Networks subsidiary. "We sell first to the owner, then to the tenants."

One advantage products from smaller companies like Trapeze still have over solutions from larger vendors is their financial upside.

"The No. 1 thing we like about Trapeze is that you can actually make margins on it," says Paul Giobbi, CEO of Zumasys, a systems integrator in Lake Forest, Calif. "We used a Proxim/Cisco solution before, but it was overdistributed."

But larger vendors are developing attractive wireless tools as well. In January, 3Com released its OfficeConnect Wireless Access Point, a Power over Ethernet (PoE) device for the SMB space. The advantage of PoE is that its power supply and data networking can run over the same wire, an ease-of-use feature that's very attractive to smaller companies.

"You can place the access point in the most convenient location and move it easily without requiring an electrician to come in and rewire everything," says Alan Miano, a 3Com product manager. "It's the perfect complement to our baseline switch."

An indication of how influential the SMB space is becoming is that 3Com and other large networking vendors are re-engineering many of their enterprise products for the market. "We've taken a lot of enterprise-class features and repurposed them at a lower price point," Miano says.

How much repurposing or retraining does an enterprise VAR need to sell to the SMB space? "None," he says. "SMB wireless networks are similar to enterprise networks because they're moving upscale, featurewise. Most VARs would be shocked at how many features you can get for this price."

The primary difference between the enterprise and SMB market has to do with priorities. "The enterprise is more interested in scalability; SMBs are more interested in ease of use and ease of deployment," Trapeze's Simone says. "If VARs have already been selling to large enterprises, there are [few] new skills they have to learn to begin selling to SMBs."

The emergence of WLANs may also open doors to solution providers in residential markets, though that may be more of a distant goal. "Residential is a different business model," Arcuri says. "It's mostly multitenant apartment buildings and condos. There's some resistance at first, but we've been successful with a number of landlords, and once you prove how well wireless works, you can get opportunities at other properties."

Moreover, no matter how easy an SMB WLAN is to use, ongoing support services are still needed. "So far, wireless has been mostly a warehouse play for us, giving people connectivity in places they couldn't get it before," Giobbi says. "But a lot of people have been asking about hosted services, so I think we'll get more into that as time goes on."