According to IDC, growth in EMEA was up 9.4% year-on-year and 9.3% in the US. Petr Jirovsky, IDC research manager, worldwide networking trackers, predicted the WLAN market would see “sustained and steady growth across the regions over the next few years” as 802.11ac adoption increased.
David Kelly, vice president of sales international at Meru Networks, agrees that more organisations are upgrading their networks to 802.11ac to “support the demand for growing data consumption by mobile users”. He says it is “particularly evident in markets like the hospitality sector where fast, scalable reliable and secure Wi-Fi is absolutely critical”. Kelly cites the example of the Convention Centre Dublin, Ireland’s first purpose-built convention centre, which has just completed the implementation of an 802.11ac Meru network for its 2,000-seat auditorium and 4,500m2 of exhibition space.
“…the significance of the WLAN market has been growing for many years” – David Kelly, Meru Networks
The deal between HP and Aruba shows WLAN is a growing and successful market, he argues, adding that the “the significance of the WLAN market has been growing for many years”.
Companies like Meru had witnessed WLAN develop over the past 10 years “from a ‘nice to have’ to ‘mission critical’ and a fundamental part of any organisation’s network infrastructure, whether it’s a primary school, hospital, football stadium, global business or public service”.
He argues that being able “to deliver high density, high bandwidth, fast and reliable Wi-Fi will separate the men from the boys and open up opportunities for the channel”. Kelly claims that “more and more product from other wireless vendors are having to be taken out because they’re not fit for today’s requirements”.
The top four WLAN vendors are Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus and HP. IDC found Cisco worldwide enterprise WLAN revenue was in sync with the overall market in 2014, growing 7.5%. Market share was steady at 48.3%, making it the largest supplier by some distance. IDC added that “growth in the Meraki cloud-managed WLAN portfolio will remain a key driver of continued growth”.
A strong indicator as to why HP decided to snap up Aruba was provided by the WLAN growth figures for both businesses. In contrast to the other three vendors in the top four of the WLAN market, HP revenues were down 15% in 2014 and market share fell from 5.4% in Q4 2013 to 4.3% at the end of last year. By contrast, Aruba had a very strong performance in the fourth quarter of 2014, increasing revenue 29% year on year. “Burgeoning demand for both 802.11ac and Aruba Instant access points continues to drive positive results for Aruba,” IDC reported. The company’s market share increased to 11.8% from 9.8% in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Ruckus also outperformed the overall WLAN market, growing revenues 15.7% year on year and increasing market share from 5.7% in Q4 2013 to 6.2% at the end of last year.
Bold move
But it’s not just about revenue. In a briefing note about the Aruba acquisition, market research company Gartner predicted combining the second biggest campus-switching vendor with the second largest WLAN vendor should create a global rival to Cisco.
The authors of the note described it as “a smart and bold move for HP” given its struggles in the WLAN market. “The acquisition adds respected executives from Aruba to the HPN [HP Networking] organisation in key leadership roles, which can accelerate HP networking market opportunities”.
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