When your primary wireless LAN vendor bites the dust, what are your options? Two universities we contacted are adapting to a world without Proxim and, while the sands are shifting under their feet, they both believe they will manage the transition successfully.
Earlier this month WLAN hardware vendor Proxim filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was purchased by Moseley Associates for $21 million. For a while, Proxim was the second-leading WLAN equipment vendor after Cisco Systems but, recently, its market share has shrunk.
To some extent, this isn’t just about Proxim but, rather, is a cautionary tale about the always on-going debate in enterprise IT shops about whether to commit to a single vendor or to a multi-vendor environment. It’s also about how organizations cope after a major vendor goes away.
Managing The Change
Tom Zeller, Indiana University’s telecommunications technical advisor, noted that, “we don’t feel the need to rip out” the 1200 Proxim access points (APs) spread across two campus buildings. While the university will keep its Proxim AP600 access points in place for now, it also is deploying 400 APs from Hewlett-Packard, which are being used to finalize the institution’s wireless plans.
“(Indiana University) was right on the verge of switching to HP when the Proxim announcement came, Zeller said.
Indiana University plans to manage its existing base of Proxim APs using AirWave Management Platform (AMP) software from San Mateo, California-based Airwave Wireless. The software allows customers of Proxim, Symbol, Enterasys and others to manage their networks using a single application and interface, the company says.
That puts Airwave in a good position to observe how Proxim shops are reacting.
“We haven’t seen Proxim customers leaving in droves,” said Greg Murphy, Airwave’s founder. Not surprisingly, though, the company believes that, even before the demise of Proxim, the strong trend was toward heterogeneous networks, a market sector that’s “taking off like crazy,” according to Murphy. A key benefit to such environments, he said, is that it insulates enterprises from vendor changes such as Proxim’s demise.
Reason for Pause
Marketplace uncertainty is certainly being felt at another university that was heavily invested in Proxim equipment.
“You never know these days,” said Marcelo Lew, wireless network specialist at the University of Denver. While the university has invested a significant amount of money in Proxim’s Orinoco APs and Tsunami point-to-point hardware, he says the institution is looking at Cisco products, which are already in place on the wired side of the network. Lew noted that universities commonly “look for a manufacturer with a name.”
Used to connect fraternity and sorority houses, the university has 300 Proxim APs used for hotspots and point-to-point applications.
Lew acknowledged that Proxim’s bankruptcy caught him by surprise. No mention was made of a buy-out by Moseley Associates when the equipment company met with University officials several weeks ago. Indeed, pricing was very good ” 30 percent less than Cisco, according to Lew.
Lew voiced extreme reluctance to place faith in another second-tier vendor.
Strong Market Undercurrents
While Lew and Zeller agree Proxim had good products, they believe the company fell victim to changing demands.
“They had a really solid platform,” Zeller said. However, the company became ensnared in the wave of commoditization that swept through the hardware vendor side of Wi-Fi, according to Zeller.
Others have observed that Proxim misjudged the move to WLAN switches in the enterprise, led by startups such as Airespace, which has been acquired by Cisco. Others have complained that Proxim’s prices were too high.
Then, perhaps the final nail in the coffin was the $22 million patent-infringement suit lawsuit lost to competitor Symbol.
All these dynamics indicate that change has become the norm in the WLAN industry, the two IT professionals agreed. In particular, industry consolidation will continue, so the vendor landscape will also continue to change, Zeller said.
In addition, he added that he believes wireless platforms need to change from a mobile architecture based on laptops to one focused on handheld devices.
“This would be a very awkward time to make any (major) changes,” Zeller said. He predicted that universities have two or three years before they need to make major changes to their WLAN architecture.
In the meantime, Proxim’s competitors pounced quickly after the bankruptcy announcement so the staggering Proxim had to focus on righting its ship.
WLAN switch vendor Trapeze said its new Open Access Point Initiative would support Proxim’s AP 4000 access points. Meru announced Proxim customers can attach their Proxim APs to the company’s switch or trade in the Proxim hardware for Meru alternatives. Trapeze said its Wi-Fi switches will manage Proxim’s AP 4000s. Colubris is offering Proxim customers rebates when trading in Proxim items.
And looming in the background, of course, is Cisco Systems, which, as the leader in the enterprise WLAN market by a wide margin, stands to benefit from marketplace uncertainty.
A New Direction?
In the meantime, Proxim is working to slow the damage. In an interview with the U.K.’s TechWorld, Jeff Orr, the company’s senior product marketing manager, said the company would remain operating under its own name even after being swallowed by Moseley Associates.
Also, Proxim will continue to support the Orinoco product line, he said. In fact, Proxim will announce this week the Orinoco Smart Wireless Controller for the company’s AP-4000.
However, Orr said that Proxim will bow out of the enterprise market. Instead, Proxim sees the municipal hotzone market as a perfect fit with its new owners. Proxim plans to supply the Wi-Fi distribution while parent company Moseley Associates’ other wireless acquisitions provide WiMAX backhaul for such networks.
So, if Proxim reinvents itself as a muni wireless player, the company may live to fight another day and to provide support to its enterprise customers as they move toward other vendors.
