Motorola Ups 802.11n Wireless Ante

The AP650 access point and the RFS4000 integrated services controller are the newest members of a Motorola Smart Branch product line that is aimed specifically at the needs of branch offices. As part of a general wave of cost-cutting efforts, IT organizations have been scaling back on the number of IT people deployed in remote branch offices in favor of remotely managing those devices. Motorola is trying to entice customers to upgrade the wireless infrastructure in those branch offices as part of an effort to increase the amount of bandwidth in those offices, while also making it easier to manage those devices.

Motorola has also integrated firewall, intrusion detection, virtual private network, virtual LAN and quality of service (QoS) capabilities into the controller. Those devices can then be managed virtually via a set of systems management tools that not only allows an IT administrator to remotely trouble shoot problems, but will automatically optimize network performance based on a set of policy guidelines established by the IT organization.

In addition, the devices will distribute workloads across multiple access points based on workloads and the availability of the devices on the network.

Motorola is engaged in a major battle with Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Aruba, D-Link and a number of other manufacturers over which vendor will be able to entice the most customers to upgrade to 802.11n wireless networks, which has just become an officially certified standard. Cisco, for instance, will this week launch an 802.11n wireless network acceleration kit in the hopes of getting its partners to drive greater adoption.

Although spending scarce IT dollars on faster wireless networks might not be at the top of the immediate budget agenda during these tough economic times, vendors are hoping that customers will be interested in significantly reducing the total cost of wireless networking by consolidating access points, while simultaneously improving the overall productivity of campus environments.

Pricing for the RFS4000 controller starts at $1,299, while the pricing for the AP650 wireless access point starts at $495.