Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN
Network connectivity is a commodity; the magic is in managing and controlling those thousands of connections.
View Vendor Shortlist
What is a shortlist?
A shortlist is a personalized list of vendors based on the criteria you define. Your shortlist offers more information about vendor's strengths, weaknesses, price-points, etc, and ranks them according to your needs.
Access this Vendor Shortlist by logging in with your Info-Tech Research Group membership or unlocking this content.
What is a Value Score?
The Value Score indexes each vendor’s product offering and business strength relative to their price point. It does not indicate vendor ranking.
Vendors that score high offer more bang for the buck (e.g. features, usability, stability, etc.) than the average vendor, while the inverse is true for those that score lower.
Price-conscious enterprises may wish to give the Value Score more consideration than those who are more focused on specific vendor/product attributes.
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Your Challenge
- The number of devices the network has to support is growing geometrically and the future says most of them won’t have humans in front of them.
- Networking infrastructure has one of the longest refresh lifecycles in IT – you have to make sure your vendor supports you now and will be adaptable in the future.
- When all the vendors provide all the functionality you think you need, how do you decide between them?
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Unified management and application visibility is a must. It is no longer enough to just be able to see network assets and traffic from a central console – one needs to be able to see into that traffic in order to manage it properly.
- The Internet of Things (IoT) will demand more of your network than you think. IoT is the biggest thing to come along in network endpoint innovation. This potential for exponential growth will radically change the way you architect your network, from the frequencies you choose for Wi-Fi, to security and access, to where you locate your compute resources.
- Software-defined networking (SDN) is here to stay. The only way to survive the pace of change expected of the modern network will be through the automation and orchestration tools afforded by SDN.
Impact and Result
- Commoditization of the network access layer will continue as advanced features are delivered through programmable APIs on merchant silicon.
- Network engineers will be expected to work more closely with applications and development staff as increased visibility into the traffic allows better troubleshooting.
- Picking the right network vendor will deliver the basic features you need now and, more importantly, prepare you for the advanced features you’ll need tomorrow.
1. Evaluate the leading players in the enterprise wired and wireless market
Understand the market and available options.
2. Identify the wired and wireless LAN vendor that best meets your needs
Develop a shortlist to speed the selection process.
3. Issue an RFP to the shortlist of vendors
Solicit responses from shortlisted vendors to find optimal enterprise fit.
4. Review RFP candidates
Ensure that selected proponents can deliver when it counts.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is a three call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Shortlist Assistance and Requirements
Call #1 - Get off to a productive start: Discuss the market space and how vendors are evaluated. Decide which platform suits you best and narrow down the options based on customized requirements.
Guided Implementation #2 - RFP and Budget Review
Call #1 - Interpret and act on RFP results: Review vendors’ RFPs and ensure the solution will meet your needs. Discuss average pricing of solutions and what can fit into your budget.
Guided Implementation #3 - Negotiation and Contract Review
