October 01, 2004

TRAPEZE NETWORKS DEFINES THE WIRELESS BRANCH OFFICE

MXR-2 blends headquarters-class features with no-touch deployment

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Oct. 4, 2004 — Trapeze Networks™, today announced the addition of a branch office wireless LAN (WLAN) switch to its award-winning family of enterprise WLAN products. Part of the Trapeze Mobility System™ family, the MXR-2™ is a low-cost solution that extends Trapeze's reach from the enterprise core to thousands of branch offices.

"The MXR-2 is exactly the product we are looking for to extend our WLAN features to our branch sites," said Chip Greel, senior network architect at Finisar. "Within our branch offices I can now get the same control, functionality, security, policies and management I have at headquarters and centrally manage my entire WLAN — all within one product family."

Network equipment vendors often view branch office products as scaled down versions of enterprise products with a subset of their features. Trapeze took a customer-focused approach that migrates "headquarters-class" features out to branches. All of the powerful features of existing Trapeze WLAN switches are available in the MXR-2.

Featuring a "no-touch," drop-ship deployment model, the MXR-2 significantly reduces the effort required to deploy WLANs at remote sites, which often lack technical resources. Remote installation of the MXR-2 simply entails plugging it into the branch office network. Branch WLAN switch configurations are downloaded from headquarters using the Trapeze RingMaster tool suite. Even very complex configurations can be easily created, replicated and customized for individual MXR-2s, and then downloaded to worldwide branch offices with the click of a mouse.

"The MXR-2 proved to be the perfect wireless solution for one of our large computer retail customers who use wireless for voice applications throughout their stores," said Aubrey Brown, CEO of Corsa Network Technologies, a key Trapeze reseller. "Retail employees can converse wirelessly using 802.11 phones, and it all runs on a Trapeze infrastructure. The ability for employees to remain in constant communication helps them maximize sales and customer satisfaction."

Branch offices often serve as the staging ground for customer engagements, so network uptime is as important as at headquarters. The additional intelligence built into the MXR-2 allows it to support local authentication of wireless users. This permits non-stop WLAN operation, even in the wake of a wide area network (WAN) failure.

Branch office security requirements are particularly acute as they are frequently situated in multi-tenant units, and are designed to support customer engagements and thus subject to large volumes of non-employee traffic, and they typically do not have dedicated security personnel. The branch is not the place to compromise security. The MXR-2 supports all standard authentication methods, all major encryption types, access control lists (ACLs), and many other features to control and manage WLAN and network access.

Secure roaming is also vital in the branch. Traveling employees must access the same headquarters resources while visiting remote sites. At the same time, IT requires the same level of access control for traveling employees as for branch office workers. Trapeze offers a highly scalable way to resolve this paradox using powerful features that extend corporate VLANs to thousands of branch offices on-demand, and without tedious manual configuration.

Given that most corporations have extensive branch office networks, the unit cost of products targeted at this market is a big consideration. Trapeze cost engineered the MXR-2 and achieved an unprecedented level of price/performance. No other WLAN switch with comparable capabilities approaches the price point of the MXR-2 — a full-service branch WLAN (switch and AP) can be installed for as little as $1,350 list price.

Pricing and Availability
The MXR-2 has a U.S. list price of $995 and will be available worldwide in Q4, 2004.

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 has been the recipient of seven industry awards in recognition of its product and technology strength. Founded in March 2002, Trapeze raised $50 million in venture funding to date and is headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., U.S.A. For more information, please visit www.trapezenetworks.com.

Need more information about Trapeze Smart Mobile™ wireless solutions? Call us today and talk to a Trapeze representative: 877.359.8779