Wireless LANs based on the IEEE 802.11 standard are on a strong growth spurt, according to two research reports released this month. The worldwide market for all products based on the 802.11 standard by 2006 will grow to US$3.1 billion in annual revenue, from US$1.2 billion in 2001, according to research company Dell’Oro Group Inc., in Redwood City, Calif.. The wireless LANs will be particularly popular in the SOHO (small office-home office) segment. Infrastructure products, such as access points, for SOHO will make up the largest part of the revenue, as opposed to client network interface cards (NICs) or enterprise infrastructure products. The SOHO market will show annual revenue growth of about 40 per cent between 2003 and 2006, Dell’Oro said. Wireless LANs based on 802.11 now are the networks of choice for homes, used largely for sharing broadband Internet connections among multiple PCs, according to Dell’Oro. The declining prices of 802.11 systems have helped drive adoption in the home, the company said in a statement on the report.
SANgate’s storage device eases equipment changes
Start-up SANgate Systems Inc. has announced the first of its data migration products, which let customers migrate open systems and mainframe storage data from one vendor’s array to another’s. The company is introducing the SANblaster S1000 portable appliance, a hardware platform with software that manages the migration of data from direct-attached or Fibre Channel storage arrays to Windows NT/2000 or Unix host computers. Analysts say the product will probably be adopted by large data centres and service professionals who install many new storage systems, perform multiple data migrations per year or are reorganizing or upgrading their data centres. SANgate says that its approach to data migration is fast: The company’s SANblade product can move 1 terabyte per hour from the source to the target storage device. SANblaster S1000 will migrate data between Hewlett-Packard Co.’s StorageWorks, IBM Corp.’s “Shark” Enterprise Storage Server, Hitachi Data Systems Corp.’s Lightning and EMC Corp. Symmetrix and Clariion arrays, among others.
Enterasys revising revenue
As an internal review continues into its revenue reporting since 2001, Enterasys Networks Inc. has announced that it’s revising revenue estimates upward for the fiscal first quarter ended March 30. The Andover, Mass.-based networking company said in a statement that its fiscal first-quarter revenue is now estimated at US$122 million to US$127 million, up from an original estimate of US$110 million to US$120 million. Because of the ongoing financial review, the first-quarter numbers still have not been finalized and the company has not yet filed its annual 10-K report for 2001 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also reported a preliminary revenue estimate of US$120 million to US$125 million for the second fiscal quarter that ended June 29.
Cisco to acquire Ayr Networks for US$113M
Cisco Systems Inc. has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy privately held Ayr Networks Inc., a provider of high-performance distributed networking services and scalable routing software. While Cisco already owns a minority stake in Ayr, the buyout deal would see Cisco offering company stock worth up to US$113 million for the other outstanding shares of Ayr, according to a statement released by Cisco, which is based in San Jose. Ayr’s 30 employees would move to Cisco, with Ayr’s Chief Executive Officer Tom Grennan set to join the company’s Internet Technologies Division. The deal has already received approval from both companies and is now subject to other closing conditions and approvals, the company said. If fully approved, Cisco expects the buyout to conclude in the first quarter of Cisco’s 2003 fiscal year.
