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http://www.techworld.com/features/index.cfm?RSS&FeatureID=2143

Aruba has snatched 2nd place away from Symbol in the WLAN Switch market. wow.

Now it's a head-to-head with Cisco and Aruba. Can't wait to see how this plays out.

Devinator

..anything to shut down Cisco works for me... :--)

Don't forget, controllers are only a tiny piece (maybe 10%) of the market. Standalone APs from Cisco, Symbol, 3Com, Nortel, Proxim, etc. still dominate the market. Plus, it is a bit too early to proclaim Aruba a contender until they reach cash flow positive status.

All that aside, Aruba is positioned well if the market goes toward controllers. People I talk to like the fact that they can be an overlay to the LAN. Symbol can't really match their scale for laptop-based WLANs.

Aruba is in positive cash flow already, so in your words, that makes them a contender.

WLAN switching is well past any 10% of the market.

:-)

I would be very surprised if Aruba is turning a profit. Obviously they don't release detailed financial reports so it is rather pointless to debate that one.

As far as the WLAN switch portion being "well past" 10% of the overall market, I suppose it depends on your definition of those words. This report from a month and a half before the article you quoted has controllers at 13% of the overall market with forecasts of controllers hitting just under 18% of the overall market by 2008.

http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid7_gci1149106,00.html?bucket=NEWS

Even the report you quoted states that Cisco sells 90% standalone APs and 10% controller systems.

My point is just that saying the enterprise market has shaken out to controllers from Aruba and Cisco is a bit reckless. Symbol is still number two in overall WLAN enterprise market share according to a report last week from Dell'Oro, based in large part on their standalone APs. Nortel and 3Com still sell a majority of standalone APs. Proxim sells standalone APs, with Motorola, HP and Avaya having OEM agreements to sell those APs as well. HP sells standalone APs and Netgear now sells standalone APs to the enterprise.

FYI

Positive article regarding Aruba's profitablility...

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1928069,00.asp

Casey:

"Officials declined to comment on the company's profitability." I think that says it all.

Devin:

That's fine. I just felt that saying, "Now it's head to head with Aruba and Cisco...," was giving Aruba too much credit and shortchanging other vendors.

Aruba and cisco..lol

I don't think Aruba can even come closer to Cisco..will take years.

If Aruba is second. Then there is only two on the market! They keep rolling out feature's and not fixing known issues! If any biz tells me that the debug commands are not in the Doc's becuase they are for Aruba techs only, ha... But,,, they do have great techs that know the issues!! We think they are the ones who right the code!
One thing thow,, they are new!! And after a few more years, this product could be the best for like VoWLAN!!! More toys, keep them coming!!

Microsoft teaming with Aruba should help...

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;754084996;fp;16;fpid;0