A Changing Landscape
The wired and wireless LAN landscape is changing significantly with a slew of acquisitions that consolidated the market as enterprises strive for a single vendor to deploy their access layer solutions, according to research firm Gartner.
In the past 18 months, Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquired Aruba Networks, Fortinet bought Meru Networks, Brocade Communications purchased Ruckus Wireless, and Allied Telesis nabbed Extricom. Market consolidation is tied to enterprises now preferring a common set of security, policy enforcement and management across both their wired and wireless networks as well as flexible deployment options in a private or public cloud environment, said Gartner.
A total of 16 vendors made Gartner's 2016 worldwide Magic Quadrant for Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure including leaders Cisco and HPE-Aruba as well as newcomers Fortinet and Xirrus.
