Aruba buy may spark vendor consolidation - analyst

WLAN market grew seven per cent in final quarter of 2014, according to Dell'Oro

Aruba Networks' acquisition by HP has set the scene for an "exciting year" for the wireless LAN market, according to analyst Dell'Oro Group, following decent growth in the final quarter of 2014.

WLAN sales grew seven per cent in Q4 of 2014 on an annual comparison, Dell'Oro said, with sales of enterprise-class 802.11ac-based radio access points swelling 14 per cent quarter on quarter.

Chris DePuy, vice president of wireless LAN research at Dell'Oro, said Aruba's proposed acquisition by HP could have an effect on other vendors.

"It is shaping up to be an exciting year in 2015 for the WLAN and campus Ethernet switch markets," he said.

"HP's bid for Aruba may set in motion a vendor consolidation. Plus, we have new technologies all entering the fray at once: 802.11ac Wave 2 radio systems, 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps Ethernet interfaces on WLAN access points and Ethernet switches, and recent vendor support for enterprise-oriented small cells."

Dell'Oro's report chimes exactly with that of IDC's, whose WLAN tracker also showed the market rising by seven per cent, year on year in Q4 2014, with the enterprise segment jumping 7.4 per cent.