August 30, 2006
Trapeze Networks Releases Industry-Leading Mobile Applications
Trapeze Mobility System 5.0 Delivers Best-in-Class Applications for Security, Voice, Management, and Location at Lowest Cost of Ownership PLEASANTON, Calif., August 30, 2006 - Trapeze Networks™, the award-winning provider of the wireless LAN (WLAN) Mobility System™, today announced the release of the latest version of its industry-leading product, Trapeze Mobility System Software 5.0. As WLAN infrastructure matures, customers are demanding increased functionality from their wireless networks such as advanced security, voice, management, and location solutions. In response, Trapeze has worked with core customers and partners to develop and deliver leading mobile applications to satisfy customers' current and emerging business needs within these areas.
Delivering the Highest Level of Wireless Security ---Trapeze Adds Industry-leading Intrusion Protection
According to a recent Gartner report, security remains the primary requirement for customers looking to deploy mobile applications. With Trapeze Mobility System 5.0, Trapeze Networks now offers the most complete wireless security solution available in the market. This new release builds on existing core security capabilities embracing 802.1X standards, which Trapeze pioneered in its first release in July 2003. Furthermore, Trapeze Mobility System 5.0 extends security capabilities with the inclusion of industry-leading intrusion detection services (IDS) and intrusion prevention services (IPS).
Integration with AirDefense Uniquely Meets Department of Defense Security Requirement
Through a partnership with AirDefense, the acknowledged leader in IDS and IPS, Trapeze Networks is the only vendor in the market delivering a secure, integrated mobile solution. Additionally, AirDefense, which pioneered the IDS/IPS industry, is the only wireless IDS/IPS vendor to receive NAIP Common Criteria Certification, required by the United States Department of Defense for all military WLAN deployments. Together, the integrated Trapeze Networks and AirDefense solution meets all requirements for comprehensive intrusion protection, avoiding the cost and complexity of adding a separate IDS/IPS overlay.
"No other solution meets the Common Criteria certification requirement for wireless IDS/IPS set down by the Department of Defense," said Doug Laird, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Trapeze Networks. "Despite their claims, Aruba's mobile edge fails to deliver against this highest security standard, whereas Trapeze Networks with AirDefense is cost-effectively bringing the ultimate WLAN IDS/IPS security functionality to enterprises today."
Maximum Protection at Lowest Cost
In combination with AirDefense, the new security capabilities and benefits of Trapeze Mobility System Version 5.0 include:
- 360° protection against 230 threats and attacks including Denial of Service, Evil Twins/Rogues and Ad Hoc Networks, versus fewer than 45 in competitor offerings.
- 24/7 continuous monitoring for always-on protection, versus inferior part-time monitoring.
- Comprehensive forensic analytics - analyzes past activity to identify and prevent current and future threats.
- Common hardware - reduces upfront investment and operating costs. Trapeze access points (Mobility Points) and AirDefense sensors leverage identical hardware - one part to install, stock, maintain and operate.
- Integrated configuration and management - reduces IT burden and operating costs by up to 50 percent compared with deploying a separate IDS/IPS overlay. Integration dramatically simplifies adds, moves, and changes, eliminating the need for duplicate configuration efforts. Network administrators can monitor WLAN performance and alarms all in a single console.
- Dynamic threat response - access points can be easily converted into sensors for rapid, cost-effective counter-attack, then converted back to access point service. This conversion capability minimizes capital expenditure requirement and provides a highly flexible threat response system.
"We expect the advanced IPS features in Trapeze Mobility System 5.0 will allow us to quickly convert our access points to AirDefense sensors to monitor for intrusions and provide a more secure wireless environment," said Mark Mitchell, Principal Technologist at Sandia National Laboratories. "We also like the fact that we now will be able to use the same Trapeze access point hardware as a Trapeze AP or as an AirDefense sensor to help reduce cost of ownership."
Delivering the Industry's First True Toll-Quality Voice Solution
Amid the rapid adoption of VoIP technology, customers are becoming increasingly interested in extending VoIP over WLANs (VoWLAN). Building on voice capabilities available in prior versions, Trapeze Mobility System 5.0 delivers the industry's first and only industry standards-based toll-quality voice solution. With this release, Trapeze has overcome key limitations that previously hampered widespread enterprise adoption of voice over WLAN, including limited talk time and inadequate quality of service.
"With our 5.0 release, Trapeze continues to steer clear of the proprietary approaches taken by companies such as Cisco," said Dan Simone, vice president and chief technical officer for Trapeze. "Adhering to industry standards is the only way to deliver real choice in the marketplace and drive widespread adoption of voice-over-wireless technology, which we believe is what today's customers are demanding."
Trapeze Mobility System 5.0 solves the challenge of limited talk time by implementing the Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery (U-APSD) protocol-a component of the IEEE 802.11e standard-which dramatically extends the talk time of battery-powered WiFi phones. The new release also implements a number of standards and features to deliver true toll-quality voice, adding to previously supported QoS standards such as Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) as well as SpectraLink Voice Priority (SVP). Further extending support of the 802.11e standard, Trapeze Mobility System 5.0 implements the Traffic Specification (TSPEC) protocol, which helps ensure continuous service as users roam across the WLAN, by controlling bandwidth available for voice calls and balancing voice and data traffic.
Extended Capabilities for Industry's Leading Management Solution
According to a recent Gartner user survey, manageability is one of the top two concerns for enterprises when adopting WLANs. Effective management is key to ensuring cost-effective deployment and ongoing operation. Trapeze set the industry standard for WLAN manageability with the first release of its RingMaster software. Version 5.0 extends RingMaster's industry-leading management capabilities by providing best-in-class usability, monitoring, and reporting.
"From our very first release, Trapeze has focused on delivering the most functionally complete management solution, providing an integrated lifecycle approach to planning, deploying, and optimizing wireless networks," said chief technical officer Simone. "Whereas Cisco's approach requires customers to deploy and master at least 7 different unintegrated pieces, and while Aruba is just announcing its first-generation product, Trapeze's fifth-generation release enhances the industry's richest management solution with powerful monitoring and reporting functionality that make it exceptionally easy to use."
With new functionality delivered in version 5.0, Trapeze is the only WLAN vendor to deliver:
- Network-wide fault correlation and location, making it extremely fast and easy for administrators to pinpoint performance issues
- Dashboards that enable direct drill down into real-time and 30-day historical fault and performance data
- Fully user-customizable interface
"We love the monitoring capabilities in RingMaster 5.0", said Mason Brown, a senior engineer at Turner Construction Company, the nation's leading general builder. "It truly provides at-a-glance everything we want to know about our entire enterprise (connected clients, rogues, alarms, etc.) and provides easy drill-down access to more details directly from the graphs. This monitoring capability facilitates rapid analysis and helps us take corrective action to prevent network downtime."
Real-time Location Services
The ability to track and locate high value assets in real time is a critical requirement for many customers, particularly in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and distribution, where delays can be costly or even life threatening. These customers are actively looking to leverage existing and future WLAN investments to provide location services, rather than deploying expensive, standalone location systems. In response, Trapeze is partnering with location technology leaders to deliver an integrated location solution that meets enterprise requirements for scalability and deployability at the lowest cost of ownership.
Advantages of the integrated solution include:
- The longest battery life for asset tags
- Tracking and alerts for assets that should not leave or enter specific locations
- Most scalable WLAN location solution - supports in excess of 10,000 tags
- Real time accuracy - location updates within seconds
- Complete application support
- Lowest total cost of ownership in the industry.
Immediately Available to Current Customers --- General Availability in 30 Days
Trapeze Mobility System Software 5.0 is available immediately to current Trapeze customers with existing software support contracts. The new release will be generally available in 30 days.
About Trapeze Networks
Trapeze Networks delivers the power of business applications and services to the mobile enterprise workforce. The company's wireless LAN Mobility System enhances productivity, introduces new efficiencies and accelerates business response time by delivering secure mobility for roaming users and sophisticated services for both users and IT, all while offering the lowest total cost of ownership of any WLAN infrastructure provider. Trapeze announced a partnership with Motorola (NASDAQ: MOT) in August 2005, a partnership with 3Com Corp. (NASDAQ: COMS) in August 2004, a partnership with both D-Link and Nortel (NYSE/TSX: NT) in March 2005, and a partnership with Enterasys Networks in May 2005. Trapeze has also been the recipient of eleven industry awards, including InfoWorld's Technology of the Year award for the best WLAN solution in recognition of its product and technology strength. Founded in March 2002, Trapeze has raised $102.5 million in venture funding to date and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, U.S.A. For more information, please visit www.trapezenetworks.com.
