April 25, 2007
LEADING RESEARCH FIRM RANKS TRAPEZE NETWORKS No. 1 IN ENTERPRISE Wi-Fi® TCO
Trapeze Delivers up to 45 Percent TCO Savings Over Aruba Networks; 25 Percent Savings over Cisco PLEASANTON, Calif., April 25, 2007 – Trapeze Networks™ today announced that a leading provider of technology market analysis and research ranked Trapeze Networks the leader in Enterprise WLAN Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) across all enterprise deployments. The research is based on detailed analysis of both capital expenditures (CapEx) and operational expenditures (OpEx) involved with deploying a Wi-Fi network across a broad range of business sizes.
According to the report, “Trapeze's WLAN switching equipment is the clear choice, with the lowest TCO for small, medium and large enterprise deployments.” The results were released today in a report titled: “Enterprise WLAN Total Cost of Ownership Analysis, April 2007.”
Lower TCO than Cisco and Aruba
The detailed report, published by the Yankee Group, reveals significant differences in the total cost of ownership among enterprise Wi-Fi vendors, with Trapeze Networks offering the greatest cost-savings across all enterprise scenarios examined. The full report illustrates the cost breakdown by CapEx and OpEx, while the simplified table below summarizes the TCO differences.
SMALL ENTERPRISE ARUBA CISCO TRAPEZE
Total Cost $42,867 $28,467 $23,367
Trapeze Saving % 45% 18%
MID-SIZED ENTERPRISE ARUBA CISCO TRAPEZE
Total Cost $144,171 $141,077 $105,541
Trapeze Saving % 27% 25%
LARGE ENTERPRISE ARUBA CISCO TRAPEZE
Total Cost $1,704,930 $2,002,335 $1,615,149
Trapeze Saving % 5% 19%
Small Enterprise Configuration
In the small business configuration comprising 10 access points and 250 users, the Yankee Group found that a WLAN built around the Trapeze Networks MX-8 controller provided the lowest TCO, with first year costs of $23,367, almost $20,000 lower than Aruba Networks with a total cost savings of 45 percent. The large difference resulted from the higher cost of Aruba’s WLAN management platform.
Mid-Sized Enterprise Configuration
For mid-sized businesses supporting 80 access points and 2,000 users, a WLAN built around Trapeze’s MX-216 WLAN controllers offered the lowest TCO, with a cost-savings of 27 percent and 25 percent over Aruba and Cisco respectively. In both cases, forced centralized traffic forwarding contributed to higher WLAN controller costs, leaving a significant total cost difference. In Aruba’s case, the WLAN controller is also required to perform encryption and decryption of every data packet at the controller instead of performing this function at the access point, thereby driving up controller cost.
Large Enterprise Configuration
For large businesses with 1,200 access points and approximately 30,000 users, the Trapeze solution was again the lowest TCO solution, saving more than $380,000, or 19 percent over Cisco.
Many large enterprises – particularly government, healthcare and financial services – are under regulatory or commercial pressures to implement wireless intrusion prevention systems and wireless intrusion detection systems (WIPS/WIDS) on their Wi-Fi networks to guarantee high security. However, these costs can be high. In the “Large Enterprise” scenario, the TCO savings alone would amply cover the entire cost of integrating best-in-class wireless WIDS/WIPS in conjunction with the Trapeze WLAN infrastructure. The added cost of WIDS/WIPS deployment for Aruba or Cisco would approach $450,000, compared to Trapeze’s cost of approximately $230,000.
Business Size and WLAN Usage Assumptions
The report assumes density of 25 users per access point supporting wireless data services only, across the three business sizes. The three business sizes were defined as: “Small Enterprise,” a branch office or regional office requiring only 10 access points and serving approximately 250 users; “Mid-sized Enterprise,” a single head office building requiring 80 access points to serve approximately 2,000 users; and “Large Enterprise,” a headquarters campus or university campus comprising multiple buildings, requiring both indoor access points (90 percent) and outdoor access points (10 percent) to interconnect the buildings and enable cross-campus roaming. The “Large Enterprise” scenario was designed to support 1,200 access points serving up to 30,000 users.
Support for more advanced applications such as enterprise-wide voice over Wi-Fi, location-based services, or video surveillance would typically require a higher density of access points and therefore increase the dollar value of the TCO differential among the vendors, extending Trapeze Networks’ lead.
Enterprise WLAN TCO Report Availability
A full copy of the Yankee Group report, commissioned by Trapeze Networks, is available now for download at:
http://www.trapezenetworks.com/campaign/?cmpID=04100768
About Yankee Group
The people of Yankee Group are the global connectivity experts™—the leading source of insight and counsel for builders, operators and users of connectivity solutions. For nearly 40 years, Yankee Group has conducted primary research that charts the pace of technology change and its effect on networks, consumers and enterprises. Headquartered in Boston, Yankee Group has a global presence including operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
About Trapeze Networks
Trapeze Networks delivers Smart Mobile™ — a ground-breaking approach to wireless networking, enabling organizations to deploy massively scalable mobile applications that leverage their existing infrastructure. Smart Mobile achieves this breakthrough by introducing intelligent switching, the first and only WLAN architecture that optimizes network traffic based on the underlying application. With Smart Mobile intelligent switching, organizations can support the most demanding next generation wireless applications such as toll-quality voice over WLAN for thousands of users, seamless indoor/outdoor mobility, and high-speed networks based on 802.11n — all without requiring expensive forklift upgrades. Trapeze Networks is well-capitalized, with strategic investments from networking industry leaders including Juniper Networks, Motorola, and Nortel Networks. Founded in March 2002, Trapeze is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, with operations in Europe, Japan, and Asia-Pacific. For more information, please visit www.trapezenetworks.com.
