Above : Aruba Wireless Networks 2400 WLAN switch

Europe : Aruba Wireless Networks Inc. has announced its formal entrance into the European WLAN market with the opening of European headquarters in London, the immediate availability of its product family in Europe, and the establishment of channel partnerships throughout the region. The company has also revealed its first European customers. Aruba made the announcement at N+I Paris, where, as the show's official wireless network provider, the company has enabled 802.11 access for more than 35,000 users.

With this announcement, Aruba becomes the first wireless networking supplier in Europe to deliver a complete line of fully integrated, secure WLAN switching products. These products include 8, 24 and 72 port modular and stackable WLAN switches, new WLAN muxes, dual-function access points, WLAN switching applications and a complete line of RF management tools.

The Aruba product family will be sold across Europe via a network of specialist resellers and systems integrators. Channel partners include React Technologies in the UK, Dynetcom, Ipelium, Teldata, Commswitch and Snaiso in France, and ISSC in the Nordic region. Aruba has also recently announced a global support agreement with NCR to provide Aruba customers with logistics and support services, including staging, installation, integration, professional services and maintenance, in up to 200 countries.

"We're expecting the European market for enterprise wireless LAN switching to more than quadruple over the next 12 to 18 months," said Albert Benhamou, vice president of EMEA operations. "Until now, WLAN switching within Europe has largely been a hot spot phenomenon, and has been based on the deployment of discrete, point solutions. This trend will quickly change as enterprise-class WLAN switching products radically simplify the construction and operation of large 802.11 networks."

"European enterprises have been reticent to deploy wireless networking on a large scale due to security concerns, massive complexity in dealing with RF issues, changing standards, and above all, the lack of a comprehensive solution that addresses all of these issues," continued Benhamou. "For secure and cost-effective wireless networking to become a reality in the enterprise, Aruba believes that these problems must be solved by an integrated switching solution that allows WLAN deployment to be easily centralised and controlled. This is true WLAN switching."

True WLAN switching integrates a variety of wireless security, mobility, and RF management functions - typically found in discrete appliances - into a single, scalable system that gives network managers centralised control over WLAN deployments. Aruba pioneered the concept of WLAN switching and introduced the first modular 802.11 switch in January, 2002. It remains the only company to offer both modular and stackable WLAN switches as well as access points and air monitors.

With Aruba's wireless switching products, enterprises can now better build and secure large scale 802.11 networks. Aruba's WLAN products uniquely 'lock the air' by securing the RF spectrum as well as the wired infrastructure, automating the process of building and optimising
wireless networks - this radically lowers, by 50 percent or more, the total cost of wireless network ownership.