News & Analysis

Gartner Names Cisco, Juniper among LAN Leaders

The market research company also listed Huawei to its list of enterprise LAN solution players who provide an entire suite of applications

The network infrastructure market has assumed added significance as it forms the foundation of new technology trends such as internet of things, 5G, process outsourcing and data deployment via cloud as well as infrastructure as a service concepts. The overall shift to flexible mobile use cases is driving wireless applications and their infrastructure, both at the service provider level as well as on the enterprise side. 

A report by Gartner says enterprise wired and wireless networks must support business and technical use cases, many of which are ill-defined and unforeseen. I&O leaders must select a vendor that delivers pervasive network intelligence, prioritizes end-user experience and supports the full spectrum of user and IoT devices.

 

Cisco, Juniper and Aruba come out tops

The research firm believes that given the expected shifts in the foreseeable future, Cisco, HP Enterprise / Aruba, and Juniper Networks continue to function as leaders in the magic quadrant for enterprise wired and wireless LAN infrastructure. The report also says that Chinese giant Huawei has been added to the list for the first time. 

On its part, Gartner defines this market as one where vendors supply, at a minimum, wired and wireless networking hardware and the related network software. It says products in this market enable devices and end users to connect to the enterprise wired LAN or Wi-Fi network in support of the required organizational mission.  

 

Mission critical shifts are in the offing

In a related report, SDxCentral quotes Tim Zimmerman, VP analyst at Gartner, to suggest that factors such as network automation capabilities would become critical to infrastructure as CIOs start identifying a shortage of human resources or skills as the two priorities. This would prompt AI and ML capabilities to grow as a means to ensure higher SLAs in the market. 

In its report, Gartner says the integration of network hardware and software delivers the “mission agility, pervasive security, and increased levels of experience required by end users across all types of connected applications and devices,” which has led to core integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) being “integral to correlating the flood of resultant data.” 

 

Network Opex costs set to rise 15% annually

The research firm also predicts network opex costs will rise by at least 15% every year for the next five years for 70% of enterprises due to a lack of a plan to mitigate network hardware supply chain issues.

The Gartner report also highlights that the enterprise wired and wireless LAN infrastructure market is now composed of vendors not only delivering wired and wireless Ethernet networking hardware, but also tightly integrating network management software that resides on-premises or in the cloud. 

This combination of network hardware and powerful software is integral for addressing organizational mission agility, pervasive security and the increased levels of performance required by end users across all categories of connected applications and devices.

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