Cisco, HPE Aruba, Ruckus Lead WLAN Scoreboard

Cisco and HPE Aruba lead the latest ranking for wireless LAN (WLAN) vendors.

Brocade’s recently acquired Ruckus rounds out the list of companies in the “leader” category of the IHS Markit WLAN Infrastructure Vendor Scorecard, released Wednesday.

The study measured market presence and momentum for providers of enterprise WLAN equipment – such as controllers and access points for wireless networks. Seven companies – listed as “Leaders,” “Established” and “Challengers” – made the scoreboard.

“The leaders in our scorecard – Brocade (Ruckus), Cisco and HPE Aruba – don’t just focus on wireless, but deliver a broad range of networking solutions to address the growing, diverse requirements of today’s organizations,” Matthias Machowinski, IHS Markit’s senior research director, enterprise networks and video. “In addition, they compete broadly in all segments of the WLAN market, leveraging the completeness of their portfolios and installed bases. The remaining vendors consist of wireless specialists who focus on solving problems through new and innovative approaches.”

Ubiquiti is the lone “Established” company. Aerohive, Xirrus and Zebra Technologies landed in the “Challenger” category.

The announcement fittingly came a day after Extreme Networks announced plans to acquire Zebra’s WLAN business unit for $55 million.{ad}

Extreme Networks CEO Ed Meyercord said the move would establish his company a top-three enterprise WLAN player. Zebra made it into the scoreboard last year as well.

“WLAN is the fastest growing segment in the networking industry,” Meyercord said.

A July report by the Dell’Oro Group listed similar leaders and projected the WLAN market to grow by 60 percent from now to 2020.