1. 1Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Info-Tech Research Group, Inc. Is a global leader in providing IT research and advice. Info-Tech’s products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with ready-to-use tools and templates that cover the full spectrum of IT concerns. © 1997-2013 Info-Tech Research Group Inc. Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Wired and wireless LAN are meshing together to form one unified access layer. Find your ideal combo. Info-Tech's products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with ready-to-use tools and templates that cover the full spectrum of IT concerns.© 1997 - 2013 Info-Tech Research Group

2. 2Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure The Wireless LAN (WLAN) market will become your primary network access layer – but some wired infrastructure is still required. Use Info-Tech’s research to help you choose the solution best suited to your needs. Introduction Enterprises seeking to select a solution for enterprise LAN access infrastructure. Organizations across verticals that rely on mission-critical wireless for day-to-day operations. Mid-sized organizations and institutions looking to provide wireless access to customers and employees using personal devices to access corporate resources. This Research Is Designed For:This Research Will Help You: Understand what’s new in the wired and wireless access LAN market. Evaluate wired and wireless LAN vendors and products for your enterprise needs. Determine which products are most appropriate for particular use cases and scenarios, helping you develop a shortlist of the best solutions for you.

3. 3Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Executive Summary Info-Tech evaluated 12 competitors in the enterprise LAN market, including the following notable performers: Champions: Aruba is known for its high quality products and is innovating in BYOD functionality and security features. Cisco has added to its already comprehensive portfolio by becoming a leading visionary with the acquisition of Meraki and ThinkSmart. Enterasys, a veteran in the networking industry, boasts high quality products and excellent customer service. HP offers a thorough and comprehensive portfolio but stands out in its unification of management. Juniper entered the WLAN market with its acquisition of Trapeze in 2010, and has aggressively strengthened its portfolio through improved BYOD offerings. Value Award: Aerohive’s price can’t be beat, and its strong portfolio of quality products is highly innovative. Trend Setter Award: Aerohive has led the industry in innovation, being the first to offer Bonjour support and creating cutting edge solutions in cloud management and distributed networking. 1.Discount list pricing 25-50%: Don’t pay list price. Expect discounts of 25- 50% depending on vendor and volume. For instance, expect 25% from a low-cost vendor on a moderate-volume purchase. Expect 50% or more from a higher-cost vendor with high-volume purchases. Education and not-for-profit (NFP) should be on the higher end of discounts. 2.Know what you need: Do a detailed needs and feature requirements analysis prior to purchasing. Do you need centralized or distributed? Guest access or full Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) support? Wired-wireless unification? Choose wisely, as solutions will match your needs. 3.You need ubiquitous wireless: If you’ve been fighting ubiquitous, mission- critical wireless, stop now. Virtually every enterprise needs a robust, secure, high- performance, manageable wireless solution. Info-Tech Insight

4. 4Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Market Overview The primarily wireless access network is a reality. Info- Tech has combined the wireless and wired LAN Vendor Landscapes to reflect the fact that organizations are deploying robust wireless networks as the primary access layer, while wired access switches are becoming the distribution/aggregation layer. The market is settling, and while vendors continue to fight it, wired access infrastructure is becoming commoditized. Differentiation remains in wireless features and functionality, but unified management is becoming the key differentiator. Most organizations are fully entrenched in the 802.11n standard, with hardware that challenges the laws of physics to maximize speed and capacity, even in challenging RF environments. However, upgrades are on the horizon with the 802.11ac standard being ratified in late 2013. The 802.11ac wireless standard is theoretically capable of multi-gigabit throughput on a single access point. Real-world performance will be lower, but still at least three times higher capacity than the 802.11n standard. Some vendors are already offering 802.11ac hardware based on drafts of the standard, but expect to see final hardware in late 2013. By 2015, there will be over 1 billion 802.11ac-enabled devices in use. The number of wireless devices connecting to the enterprise LAN is increasing rapidly – not only because of smartphones and tablet adoption, but upcoming trends like wearable computing and the Internet of Things. Wireless capacity will be the primary concern of most organizations, and hardware will need to be upgraded to meet requirements. Software Defined Networking (SDN) is going to be a game-changer, making unified management and control increasingly critical. How it got here Where it’s going As the market evolves, capabilities that were once cutting edge become default and new functionality becomes differentiating. Many wired features of the access network have become table stakes capabilities and should no longer be used to differentiate solutions. Instead, focus on wireless capabilities, unified management, and advanced mobile / BYOD support to get the best fit for your requirements.

5. 5Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Enterprise LAN and WLAN vendor selection / knock-out criteria: market share, mind share, and platform coverage Aerohive. Known for ease of deployment and cloud-management, it is well suited for distributed networks. Alcatel-Lucent. Offers strong telephony integration but lacks its own wireless hardware. Aruba. Delivers a comprehensive BYOD offering with a focus on security. Avaya. Offers tightly integrated unified communications, but lacks advanced BYOD features. Brocade. Focuses on strengthening its network defenses and adding BYOD functionality. Cisco. Possesses the largest mind-and-market share in LAN with a best-in-class wired and wireless portfolio. Enterasys. Provides a strong BYOD solution, unified management, and highly praised service and support. Extreme. A pure-play LAN vendor with high-quality hardware and strong SDN focus. HP. Offers a large, diverse product line and impressive unified management and integration. Juniper. Focuses on building a full-featured mobile solution including mobile device management. Meru. A pure-play WLAN vendor focusing on reliable, high-density, mission-critical deployments. Motorola. With end-to-end management, looking to big data to better understand usage patterns. Included in this Vendor Landscape: After considerable consolidation in the mid-to-late 2000s, the WLAN infrastructure market has settled. Some consolidation is still possible, but it’s considerably more stable than it has been over the past decade. For this Vendor Landscape, Info-Tech focused on those vendors that offer broad capabilities across multiple platforms and that have a strong market presence and/or reputational presence among mid and large-sized enterprises.

6. 6Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Criteria Weighting: Enterprise LAN and WLAN criteria and weighting factors Vendor is committed to the space and has a future product and portfolio roadmap. Strategy Vendor offers global coverage and is able to sell and provide post-sales support. Reach Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will be around for the long-term. Viability Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the channels themselves are strong. Channel Both wireless and wired hardware is available from the vendor, with intelligent access points. Architecture The administrative interface is intuitive and offers streamlined workflow. Usability The solution provides basic and advanced feature/functionality. Features Usability Architecture Product Vendor Viability Strategy Channel Reach Product Evaluation Criteria Vendor Evaluation Criteria The 3 year TCO of this solution is economical. Affordability is scored for our Value Index but does not contribute to a vendor’s overall score for the Vendor Landscape. Affordability

7. 7Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Table stakes represent the minimum standard; without these, a product doesn’t even get reviewed If table stakes are all you need from your enterprise LAN solution, the only true differentiator for the organization is price. Otherwise, dig deeper to find the best price to value for your needs. The products assessed in this Vendor Landscape TM meet, at the very least, the requirements outlined as table stakes. Many of the vendors go above and beyond the outlined table stakes, some even do so in multiple categories. This section aims to highlight the products’ capabilities in excess of the criteria listed here. The Table StakesWhat Does This Mean? 802.11n dual-band multi-radio access points. MIMO antennae, intelligence, mesh, remote APs. Basic Wireless Features Basic policy and resource management, site planning, integration with directory services. Management & Directory PoE+, stacking, redundancy/failover, IPv6 support, flow visibility. Basic Wired Features Current or pending support for 802.11ac wireless standard. 802.11ac Filter traffic, standards-based authentication and encryption, rogue AP detection/basic intrusion detection. Security & Policies Monitor and analyze performance and usage, from enterprise-wide to individual APs. Performance & Usage What it is: Feature

8. 8Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Advanced features are the capabilities that allow for granular market differentiation Info-Tech scored each vendor’s features offering as a summation of its individual scores across the listed advanced features. Vendors were given one point for each feature the product inherently provided. Some categories were scored on a more granular scale with vendors receiving half points. Unified management of wired networks, wireless networks, and network security. Management (Advanced) Advanced RF visibility, spectrum analysis, real- time heat maps, indoor location services. RF Visibility (Advanced) Built-in Bonjour support for Apple iOS devices. Apple (Bonjour) Support Automated endpoint provisioning, fingerprinting and client health, MDM integration. BYOD (Advanced) Network virtualization and APIs to integrate with applications. SDN-like Capabilities Wireless intrusion prevention with countermeasures, NAC integration. Security (Advanced) Quality of service features, certification with UC vendors. Unified Communications What we looked for: Feature Advanced FeaturesScoring Methodology For an explanation of how advanced features are determined, see Information Presentation – Feature Ranks (Stop Lights) in the Appendix.Information Presentation – Feature Ranks (Stop Lights)

9. 9Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Most vendors can handle both centralized (e.g. hospitals) and distributed (e.g. K-12) networks, but some are better suited for one type over the other. Central campus or multi-site business? The type of deployment can determine your ideal WLAN vendor Why Scenarios? In reviewing the products included in each Vendor Landscape TM, certain use cases come to the forefront. Whether those use cases are defined by applicability in certain locations, relevance for certain industries, or as strengths in delivering a specific capability, Info- Tech recognizes those use cases as Scenarios, and calls attention to them where they exist. 3 2 Network Distribution 1 Best For Centralized Campus Deployment Best For Distributed Multi-Site Deployment For an explanation of how Scenarios are determined, please see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation

10. 10Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Unified management is becoming increasingly important as businesses seek simplicity in single pane of glass management. Some vendors make managing your network simple and painless Why Scenarios? In reviewing the products included in each Vendor Landscape TM, certain use cases come to the forefront. Whether those use cases are defined by applicability in certain locations, relevance for certain industries, or as strengths in delivering a specific capability, Info- Tech recognizes those use cases as Scenarios, and calls attention to them where they exist. 3 2 Exemplary Performers Fully Integrated and Unified Management 2 For an explanation of how Scenarios are determined, please see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation

11. 11Info-Tech Research Group Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure Mobility-specific functionality, device support, and network access control features can make the network BYOD-ready. Businesses with a BYOD program should choose a vendor that handles the unique challenges of mobile Why Scenarios? In reviewing the products included in each Vendor Landscape TM, certain use cases come to the forefront. Whether those use cases are defined by applicability in certain locations, relevance for certain industries, or as strengths in delivering a specific capability, Info- Tech recognizes those use cases as Scenarios, and calls attention to them where they exist. 2 1 BYOD Readiness and Device Support 3 Exemplary Performers For an explanation of how Scenarios are determined, please see Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape Methodology: Information Presentation

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