"On July 11, Gartner 2018 wired and wireless LAN infrastructure Magic Quadrant report was released. There are 17 suppliers selected for the report this year, including Cisco, HPE (ARUBA), extreme networks, Huawei, most systems, mojo networks, ale, Dell EMC, Fortinet, aerohive, new H3C, Juniper Networks, arris (ruckus), riverbed, allied telesis, lancom systems and D-Link.
Compared with the 16 finalists in 2017, the number of candidates nominated this year has increased by 1. Compared with last year, this year's Magic Quadrant has added some smaller suppliers in terms of revenue and market share, indicating that they have expanded their market share enough to meet the inclusion criteria, which may mean the growth of powerful players in the LAN infrastructure market.
The x-axis of the magic quadrant represents the foresight of the supplier, and the y-axis represents the executive power of the supplier. It is divided into leaders, challengers, visionaries and those in specific fields according to the quadrant. Suppliers in the leader quadrant can meet the needs of various customers through their rich product series. The suppliers in the Challenger quadrant have excellent operation and good market position. They may not have a long-term plan, but they show strong execution.
Suppliers in the visionary quadrant demonstrate their product capabilities in order to provide a unique and differentiated approach to the market. However, its products are generally not as comprehensive as leaders, and its support for customer participation is also limited. Suppliers in specific fields tend to provide perfect technology, but may not have gained significant influence in this market, or they may focus on one or two vertical industries or geographical regions.
Cisco
Cisco continues to offer the broadest range of wired switching and wireless LAN products. Last year, Cisco launched intention based all intelligent network solutions, including catalyst 9000 series switching product portfolio and Aironet 4800 wireless access point launched in 18 years. In 2017, Cisco's revenue on campus switches and enterprise WLAN devices increased year-on-year, but the speed was lower than that of the overall market. Customers should consider the internal deployment and cloud based access layer opportunities of all Cisco enterprises around the world.
advantage
◇ for enterprises with mixed environment, Cisco's Roadmap in 2018 is to continue to develop DNA center, providing management, automation, analysis, security and the ability to combine Aironet / catalyst and Meraki product lines.
◇ for customers who need Internet of things access control policies, Cisco has created a fully functional solution by integrating its Internet of things functions with the enterprise network. The components include dna-c analysis, time sensitive network function supported by IE 4000 industrial switch series and virtual segmentation supported by software defined access (SD access).
◇ for enterprises deploying IOS client devices, Cisco's relationship with apple enables its infrastructure to directly obtain telemetry data from Apple clients through IOS Wi Fi analysis.
matters needing attention
◆ enterprises with hybrid cloud and management requirements should be aware that although the DNA center provides centralized management functions for catalyst / Aironet and Meraki, there are differences in the implementation of some features, presentation of hardware components and incompatibility of some software functions. If requirements change, these differences are considerations for migration between platforms.
◆ customers report that the Cisco one / DNA binding option is a transformation of previous licenses, including subscription components that they believe are complex and may provide automation and assurance functions that overlap or do not need services. Mandatory term licensing for some products also creates uncertainty and may increase ongoing costs. Before making a purchase decision, the enterprise must check the functionality and pricing of each license layer.
◆ the customer said that using SD access to implement IOT segmentation is very complex and difficult to deploy. Enterprises should confirm that they have sufficient resources and training to ensure the realization of the expected business functions.
HPE(Aruba)
Aruba of HP is one of the world's leading suppliers of wired and wireless network products. Enterprise customers with mixed requirements for on-site deployment or cloud management network architecture can choose from basically the same combination of switches, wireless LAN Controllers and wireless access points. Although there are still differences in features and functions, enterprises have great similarities in unified access network management using clearpass access control and policy management solutions (through airwave on premises management or Aruba central cloud management system).
HPE (ARUBA) provides integrated security through its 360 secure fabric. The security framework continuously monitors the network and client devices through clearpass for NAC and introspect to collect data for user and entity behavior analysis. Introspect advanced edition contains more than 100 machine learning models with both supervised learning and unsupervised learning. It performs excellent analysis and evidence collection on data packets, traffic, records, alerts, terminals, mobile traffic, cloud traffic and Internet of things traffic, and improves the efficiency of risk identification of the organization.
advantage
◇ the basic license of airwave includes basic connection analysis, while the AP license includes clearpass visitor access software, which is similar to similar services provided by other suppliers to maintain the cost competitiveness of basic network requirements.
◇ for campus aggregation and core switching, 8400 / 8320 chassis switches include network analysis and policy based monitoring and security tool integration.
◇ Aruba has updated its network service support function through netinsight. Netinsight is a new cloud based product that can provide 400 data points to the machine learning engine and provide user connection and RF insight for recommended network configuration changes.
matters needing attention
◆ Aruba has made slow progress in developing it / operational technology (OT) integration products, which will limit the practicability of its customers in the OT field, especially the time sensitive network functions.
◆ customers interested in cloud hosting access network are limited by the attention of Aruba central cloud management suite to branch network deployment. It lacks the same complete functions as local clearpass and airwave products to support campus switches, controllers and APS.
◆ the meridian product line of HPE (ARUBA) has not been extended to Wi Fi and ble functions, which makes some end users look for more powerful solutions in target markets such as health care and retail malls. The customer continues to explain that location services applications need to use the meridian API to integrate with other technologies and applications to create and extend the end user experience.
Extreme Networks
Extreme networks is a wired / wireless LAN access layer provider. Over the past year, we have seen extreme demonstrate its ability to deploy and support customers worldwide, and its product portfolio can meet all enterprise access layer opportunities. Extreme has edge to core infrastructure solutions that can be optimized from on premises, cloud or hybrid network service applications. Customers have licensing flexibility, not a "one size fits all" model. This applies to applications needed by their business, such as extreme management, extreme value control and extreme value analysis. Extreme fabric connect also meets customers' growing demand for segmentation of the Internet of things. Extreme AI uses network data and machine learning to automatically adjust wired and wireless access networks.
Extreme provides strong customer service through 100% internal service and support team. Although it is still a relatively small switch and WLAN provider, extreme's revenue increased by 36% and WLAN revenue doubled in 2018. Most of its growth is due to acquisitions. Customers should evaluate extreme networks for wired / wireless LAN access layer opportunities worldwide.
advantage
◇ extreme's management team has strong leadership, and its sales management team has expanded the coverage of suppliers in geographical location and vertical market.
◇ extreme fabric attach provides an access layer structure, which can meet the needs of enterprise Internet of things segmentation in wired and wireless LAN product portfolio.
◇ extreme's product management department integrates Avaya and zebra's access network products into an integration roadmap focusing on general hardware and unified operating system, which is very important for customers with three to five years of development.
matters needing attention
◆ customers with hybrid deployment may not be able to deploy the latest extreme network applications locally and in the cloud initially. For example, extreme's user and entity behavior analysis (ueba) product was originally released as a cloud product and also provides on premises flexibility. The enterprise needs to verify whether the application can be deployed in the specified location.
◆ in terms of providing positioning function, extreme is still in a backward position. Organizations using extreme wireless or extreme wireless location solutions should specify their requirements and tests to ensure that the technology handles use cases.
◆ customers who buy extreme products or continue to buy traditional products from companies they acquire must be aware of the challenges faced by combining access layer products of multiple enterprises. Enterprises using Avaya or zebra products need to ensure that they have a migration and product integration plan and that any new products or applications meet their solution requirements.
Huawei
Huawei enterprise business group (BG) provides network access layer solutions for customers all over the world. In 2017, Huawei generated nearly 60% of switch and WLAN revenue in China's local market. Huawei continues to develop products in the fields of unified network management, location-based services and advanced analysis of network security. Its product portfolio and roadmap are usually consistent with market demand.
Enterprises seeking wired and wireless integrated solutions for campus network use Huawei's agile campus network solution, which represents Huawei's end-to-end flagship product for campus network. Network service functions provided by agile controller Campus (Agile controller) park and branch network controllers, such as access control, policy implementation, traffic monitoring, application visibility, WLAN configuration and deployment, location service and visitor access. For the integrated management of wired and wireless networks and network quality analysis, enterprises must deploy esight software suite using SNMP.
Huawei is the third largest supplier in the global wired / wireless LAN access layer market. The customer should evaluate the opportunities of all wired / wireless LAN access layers of Huawei, especially in China and EMEA.
advantage
◇ agile controller can be deployed locally and in the cloud, and can be expanded to at least 6000 APS and 1000 switches. The software license option provides functions including AAA security, login, access management and security assistance.
◇ Huawei s6720-si multi rate 10 Gigabit box switch has the most abundant ports in the industry and supports Ge / 2.5g/5g/10g multi rate, laying a strong foundation for its modular and non modular switches. The price of these switches is usually lower than that of its competitors.
◇ Huawei cloud management Park solution has flexible cloud management. Customers can choose either private cloud deployment mode or public cloud management service. Enterprises that need to change from internal deployment to cloud management deployment can upgrade their software and hardware licenses without changing hardware such as access points or switches.
matters needing attention
◆ in 2017, more than 87% of Huawei's access layer network revenue came from China and EMEA. Especially in North America, where Huawei faces political resistance, risk averse enterprises should conduct a thorough investigation and assessment to ensure that they provide sufficient support for the implementation and services of Huawei's solutions.
◆ Huawei's end-to-end positioning services rely on partnerships that complement its broader customer value proposition.
◆ Huawei lags behind its main competitors in providing advanced network service support automation. In March 2018, the company launched campusinsight solution for analysis using artificial intelligence technology.
Mojo Networks
Mojo networks provides access layer infrastructure for wireless focus and cloud management, including wireless access points, access layer applications and switch combinations. Although mojo focuses on the North American market, it has a global customer base, direct sales personnel and distribution partners. The cognitive Wi Fi solution for cloud management has been optimized for large enterprise networks, higher education and K-12 markets, and can even be deployed locally. As a supplier of SDN solutions, mojo has the industry-leading ability to create digital twins of existing client networks in the cloud and test the configuration update code in the digital "sandbox". As one of the smaller suppliers involved in this study, mojo networks' shipments increased by about 25% year-on-year in fiscal 2017.
advantage
◇ in terms of the ability to deploy solutions to the cloud or on premises, mojo networks provides the flexibility many enterprises need.
◇ federal information processing standards (FIPS), general standards and federal risk and authorization management plan (fedramp) certification provide mojo with the required capabilities.
◇ mojo cognitive Wi Fi provides network analysis, machine learning and big data platform to track more than 300 KPIs.
matters needing attention
◆ mojo has Internet of things segmentation / containment strategy,
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