Aruba Networks (ARUN)

Aruba Networks (NASDAQ: ARUN) sells wireless access points and related products, mostly aimed at the enterprise. Their chief competitor is Cisco.

Aruba's sales pitch is that your wireless network can replace your wired network, and it will be cheaper than running cables all over the place and paying for expensive switches. (Cisco can't pursue this strategy as vigorously because they're the ones selling the switches.) This is their "network right-sizing" initiative. They also have a branch-network and remote-access product line.

Aruba bought a startup, AirWave Wireless, in spring 2008, for their wireless network management software. The AirWave software is unique in the extent to which it can manage access points from multiple vendors (including Cisco, Symbol, HP ProCurve, Meru, Trapeze, Proxim, and others). This lets Aruba sell the software, and subsequently Aruba hardware, to customers with other vendors' equipment, without replacing it all at once. A hosted service (in the cloud) offering, AirWave OnDemand, was also in beta as of March 2010.

Aruba settled a patent lawsuit with Motorola in November 2009.

Key trends include the spread of wireless devices which support the 802.11 wireless networking standard (for wireless LANs, as opposed to cellular), the adoption of the 802.11n wireless networking standard, and other future developments in networking, particularly with regards to the enterprise.

References