A recent industry report shows that the outdoor wireless LAN market has grown by a significant percent in this year’s previous quarter. Driven by an uptick in demand in Asia Pacific, some notable vendors have also experienced jumps in their own ranking among the market competition.
Market research firm Dell’ (News - Alert)Oro Group specializes in the study of telecommunications and information technology. Its latest “Wireless LAN Quarterly Report,” which addressed market fluctuation in the second quarter of 2016, shows that global outdoor wireless revenue has grown nearly 10 percent since the same time last year. This growth has rested on the shoulders of the big three product manufacturers: Cisco Systems (News - Alert), HPE Aruba and Brocade Ruckus. Those three are now joined in the top five ranking vendors by Ubiquiti and Aerohive.
On the issue of vendor ranking, Dell’Oro Group Vice President Chris DePuy has more.
“Following the consolidation in the industry over the last year, we saw two vendors enter the top five ranks of the enterprise-class plus outdoor WLAN market,” DePuy began.
“Ubiquiti (News - Alert) jumped to the fourth place, up from seventh in the year-ago quarter, on the strength of new 802.11ac products. Aerohive jumped to fifth place, up from eight in the year-ago quarter, due to new products and expansion,” he continued. “The second quarter also saw the emergence of H3C. Spun out from HPE Aruba, it is now the sixth-ranked vendor in the enterprise-class plus outdoor market as well as the number one vendor in China.”
These ranking changes show that the market is experiencing changes alongside demand from enterprises for new networking products. The type of demand the globe’s businesses are asking for could manifest in a number of ways. Outdoor devices are often used in large spaces such as a business campus of multiple buildings. Cisco even notes that they can provide connectivity to entire cities.
Cisco’s paper on the subject gives readers an idea of what scope modern wireless transmitters can achieve. It also suggests that the same devices can work in smaller areas. Therefore, businesses that wish to spread their wireless connectivity to a single parking lot can rely on the weatherproofing available on units from the vendors mentioned above. Other businesses that wish to dream a little bigger, such as linking two or three buildings across a single lot, can also realize that vision.
In any case, businesses the world over are expanding. They know that keeping their employees connected to the company network and to the Internet are top priorities. Whether or not they have multiple buildings or campuses only becomes an issue of scope, not of capability, and the top vendors in the market will be willing to address all the needs of any enterprises that come calling.
Edited by Alicia Young