Beyond Wireless: Meru Networks End-Users Score at the Highest

© 2009 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200

September, 2009

Beyond Wireless: Meru Networks End-Users Score at the Highest Satisfaction Level

Meru Networks Background

Meru Networks was founded in 2002, and is based in Sunnyvale, CA with offices in, Staines outside of London, Bangalore Stockholm, Seoul, and Tokyo.

√ Meru is a provider of core WLAN infrastructure and services, including 802.11 a|b|g & n Access Points, controllers, perimeter security, intrusion detection and protection, authentication, fixed mobile convergence, WLAN management software, and professional services

√ Meru was one of the first technology providers to bring an enterprise-class 802.11n solution to the market, announcing their first 802.11n Draft standard Access Point in April 2007

Analyst Insight

Aberdeen’s Insights provide the analyst perspective of the research as drawn from an aggregated view of the research surveys, interviews, and data analysis

One approach to identifying the advantages of a particular Wireless LAN (WLAN) system is to ascertain whether consistent performance advantages accrue to the end-users of that system as compared to the performance of all other end-users. Perhaps even more telling is the level of end-user satisfaction, as compared to all other users. As a result of recent survey data gathered by Aberdeen Group, end-users of WLAN vendor Meru Networks were determined on average to have a significant performance advantage over all other end-users on average, in many instances exceeding the performance level of the top 20%, the Best-in-Class. This performance advantage was in part due to their greater adoption of the WiFi 802.11n WLAN standard with its greater range and throughput, as well as their use of performance monitoring software and remote diagnostics and remediation software. This resulted in an end-user satisfaction level significantly greater than the average of all other users (Industry Average and Laggards combined). This Analyst Insight report draws on an extended data set of 326 respond-ing organizations, gathered between November 2008 and August 2009.

WLAN End-Users Compared - Meru versus All Others The December report Beyond Wireless: The State of WLAN 2008 was based on data collected from 292 organizations participating in the study's online research panel. The survey instrument used to gather the data for that report has continued to remain active, and as of August 1, 2009 had gathered responses from an additional 34 organizations. This new total of 326 organizations has resulted in a directionally-relevant sample for a performance comparison of end-users of a key vendor in the WLAN space - Meru Networks - with the end-users of all other respondents to the survey.

Figure 1: Maturity Class - Meru Users versus All Others

Meru

Maturity ClassNorm

All Others

33%

20%

20%

48%

50%

51%

19%

30%

29%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%Percentage of Respondents

Best-in-Class Industry Average Laggard

Meru

Maturity ClassNorm

All Others

33%

20%

20%

48%

50%

51%

19%

30%

29%


Meru

Maturity ClassNorm

Maturity ClassNorm

All Others

33%

20%

20%

48%

50%

51%

19%

30%

29%


Best-in-ClassBest-in-Class Industry AverageIndustry Average LaggardLaggard

Source: Aberdeen Group, August 2009

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http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/5369-RA-beyond-wireless-wlan.asp


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Meru's End-Users and the Best-in-Class Best-in-Class Metrics The Aberdeen Competitive Framework is used to classify all survey respondents as falling into one of the following three levels of practice and performance: √ Best-in-Class (20%):

Practices that are the best currently being employed and are significantly superior to the Industry Average, and result in the top industry performance.

√ Industry Average (50%): Practices that represent the average or norm, and result in average industry performance.

√ Laggards (30%): Practices that are significantly behind the average of the industry, and result in below average performance.

Five Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were used to distinguish Best-in-Class companies from Industry Average and Laggard organizations. Those companies with top performance reported: √ An 80% increase in flexibility

of time and place in information access; 32% more than that of the Industry Average and 56% more than the Laggards

√ An 80% increase in employee productivity; 2.5-times the increase of the Industry Average and 17-times the Laggards

√ A 76% increase in customer satisfaction; 77% more than Industry Average and 2.8 times the Laggards

√ An 69% increase in speed of decision making; more than 3-times the Industry Average

√ A 61% increase in work-team collaboration; nine-times the Laggards

Aberdeen's Maturity Classes (Best-in-Class, Industry Average, and Laggard) are used to ascertain relative performance, and are normalized across all respondents so that 20% are included in Best-in-Class, 50% in Industry Average, and 30% in Laggards. When we look at the end-users of a particular vendor, we can determine how they deviate from the 'norm' in terms of their distribution across the Maturity Classes. Figure 1 illustrates this deviation from the Maturity Class norm for Meru as compared to users of all other vendors sampled in the study.

For example, 33% of Meru respondents were Best-in-Class, 60% greater than both the Maturity Class norm and all others. Nineteen percent (19%) of Meru respondents were Laggards (37% less than the norm and 34% less than all others) and 48% were Industry Average (4% less than the norm and 6% less than all others).

From this observation that Meru's end-users are weighted more heavily towards the Best-in-Class, we might expect on average that Meru customers are more likely to achieve greater year-over-year improvement across certain performance metrics. Since one of the major findings of the May 2009 report Wireless LAN 2009: From Network of Convenience to Business-Critical Infrastructure was that the Best-in-Class achieved their success by a laser-like focus on optimizing their network performance and secure access, we'll take a look at Meru's customers' performance in regards to these two attributes as well as to their adoption of WiFi 802.11n; and then compare them to the Best-in-Class, and all other users to ascertain if it is in fact true that they excel in these capabilities.

Figure 2: Capabilities, Meru Users versus the Best-in-Class

46%

69%

40%

65%

88%

55%55%

83%

55%49%

49%35%

79%

56%

62%

85%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

WLAN accesssecurity policies

WLAN performancemonitoring solutions

802.11n WiFi Remote diagnosticsand remediation SW

Per

cent

age

of R

espo

nden

ts

Best-in-ClassIndustry AverageLaggardMeru

46%

69%

40%

65%

88%

55%55%

83%

55%49%

49%35%

79%

56%

62%

85%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

WLAN accesssecurity policies

WLAN performancemonitoring solutions

802.11n WiFi Remote diagnosticsand remediation SW

Per

cent

age

of R

espo

nden

ts

Best-in-ClassIndustry AverageLaggardMeru


Capabilities Above the Norm Meru’s end-users have a range of capabilities where they exceed the Industry Average, and in many cases exceed the Best-in-Class. They excel beyond the Best-in-Class in their use of WiFi 802.11n, performance


http://www.aberdeen.com/summary/report/benchmark/5876-RA-wireless-lan-security.asp



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monitoring solutions, and remote diagnostics and remediation software. They are above Industry Average in their development and implementation of WLAN access security policies (Figure 2).

Key Drivers for Adoption of 802.11n 802.11n Update:

√ The 802.11 group of wireless networking standards (e.g. 802.11a|b|g|n) is managed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

√ On July 17, 2009 the IEEE 802.11 Executive Board voted unanimously to submit the final draft of the 802.11n specification, to the IEEE Standards Board Review Committee for final approval.

√ The IEEE Standards Board fully ratified the 802.11n Wireless LAN specification on September 11, 2009, announcing that it was backwards-compatible with all devices shipped with the 'Draft n' specification, and that no re-testing would be required.

With the recent ratification of 802.11n by the IEEE Working Group (see sidebar), 11n adoption is expected to pass the inflection point towards even broader market adoption. Meru users are once again ahead of the curve, with 62% having already implemented 11n, versus 55% of the Best-in-Class as seen in Figure 2. The key drivers for their greater rate of adoption include the need to improve network capacity to support additional users and improve the quality of advanced wireless applications such as wireless Voice over IP (VoIP), as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: 802.11n Adoption Drivers

56%

30%

54%

23%

42%

13%

38%

19%

0%10%20%30%

40%

50%60%

To improve network capacity tosupport additional users

To improve the quality of Voice overWiFi n = 284

% o

f Res

pond

ents

MeruBest-in-Class

LaggardIndustry Average

56%

30%

54%

23%

42%

13%

38%

19%

0%10%20%30%

40%

50%60%



56%

30%

54%

23%

42%

13%

38%

19%

0%10%20%30%

40%

50%60%



% o

f Res

pond

ents

MeruBest-in-Class

LaggardIndustry Average

MeruMeruBest-in-ClassBest-in-Class

LaggardLaggardIndustry AverageIndustry Average


WLAN Impact Meru end-users report that their WLAN has measurably improved performance results well in advance of the Industry Average in the key metrics of information access flexibility, speed of decision making, and improvement in application response times (Figure 4).

Figure 4: WLAN Impact

Benefits Achieved

71% 69%62%

36%

74%62%

42%32%

44% 45%

19% 18%25%

0% 5%

23%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Customersatisfaction

Information accessflexibility

Speed of decisionmaking

Improved applicationresponse time

% o

f Res

pond

ents

Best-in-ClassMeruIndustry AverageLaggard

Benefits Achieved

71% 69%62%

36%

74%62%

42%32%

44% 45%

19% 18%25%

0% 5%

23%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%





% o

f Res

pond

ents

71% 69%62%

36%

74%62%

42%32%

44% 45%

19% 18%25%

0% 5%

23%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%





% o

f Res

pond

ents






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Perhaps more notably, they exceeded the gains of the Best-in-Class in the satisfaction of their own customers. But how satisfied were they as end-users?

End-User Satisfaction Although many of the respondents reported more than one vendor of WLAN equipment, software, and services, each was asked to identify their primary vendor; and then describe their level of satisfaction with that vendor on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being 'Very Satisfied' and 1 being "Very Unsatisfied.'

The impact of the performance and security aspects described above affects the respondents' satisfaction with Meru as their primary vendor, as shown in Figure 5. Meru end-users were among the most satisfied of the primary vendor end-users queried, with a Very Satisfied index of 4.4 out of 5.00.

Figure 5: End-User Satisfaction

4.4

3.6

1

2

3

4

5

Meru All OthersVery Unsatisfied

Very Satisfied4.4

3.6

1

2

3

4

5

Meru All OthersVery Unsatisfied

Very Satisfied


Key Takeaways Although results regarding individual metrics vary, a clear pattern emerges of the overall performance of Meru Networks' end-users as captured in this data set. Meru's end-users perform among the Best-in-Class as regards performance monitoring, 802.11n adoption, and remote monitoring and remediation software, with a corresponding high frequency of very satisfied end-users. This differentiates their overall performance above the average of all other users.

As would be expected for any vendor's users, Meru's are not above Industry Average performance in every attribute. For example, just 54% of Meru end-users report the ability to determine WLAN rogue access attempts, whereas 55% of the Industry Average and 59% of the Best-in-Class had this capability. This is not a reflection of Meru's technical capabilities in this area, but rather an assessment of their end-users' behavior regarding rogue access or unauthorized use. Meru end-users may well benefit from Meru's help in defining best-practices regarding user authentication and access, and then propagating them throughout their organization.



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These findings may also serve as a starting point for other customers to re-evaluate their own performance in relation to these survey respondents.

For more information on this or other related research topics, please visit www.aberdeen.com.

Related Research

Multi-Site and Campus-Area Wireless LANs: Advantages of the Centralized Approach, August 2009 Wireless LAN 2009: From Network of Convenience to Business-Critical Infrastructure; May 2009 More Mobility – Less Budget: Enterprise Strategies for the Current Economic Downturn, March 2009

Meru gets FMC, T-Mobile gets the Enterprise, January 2009 Beyond Wireless: The State of WLAN 2008, December 2008 Fixed Mobile Convergence in the Enterprise - The Creation of the Borderless Office, March 2008

Andrew Borg, Senior Research Analyst, Wireless & Mobility ([email protected])

Since 1988, Aberdeen's research has been helping corporations worldwide become Best-in-Class. Having benchmarked the performance of more than 644,000 companies, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to provide organizations with the facts that matter — the facts that enable companies to get ahead and drive results. That's why our research is relied on by more than 2.2 million readers in over 40 countries, 90% of the Fortune 1,000, and 93% of the Technology 500. As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information – Opportunity – Insight – Engagement – Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.comThis document is the result of primary research performed by Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen Group's methodologies provide for objective fact-based research and represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, Inc. and may not be reproduced, distributed, archived, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent by Aberdeen Group, Inc. 010109a


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Beyond Wireless: Meru Networks End-Users Score at the Highest