Enterprise network vendor Aruba Networks Inc. today announced an agreement to acquire AirWave Wireless Inc., thus expanding its networking expertise into multi-vendor wireless LAN management. Aruba will pay approximately $37 million in cash and stock for AirWave. Aruba makes a user-centric mobility system that layers over a network architecture, adding follow-me connectivity and identity-based security that is enforced regardless of access method or location. Aruba's product suite already contains a management application, the Aruba Mobility Management System (MMS), for monitoring mobility controllers and access points. But MMS, like most network products, is a single-vendor system. In contrast, AirWave's wireless management application can support a variety of WiFi, mesh, and WiMAX hardware from multiple vendors — including Aruba, Avaya, Cisco, Proxim, and Symbol — in addition to the core functions of configuration management, device and user monitoring, and reporting and diagnostics. Customer requirements were the driving force behind the acquisition, according to Aruba officials. "As customers roll out 802.11n and other disruptive technology, they face the daunting prospect of managing wireless products from many vendors," said Dominic Orr, Aruba's president and CEO, in a teleconference with analysts this morning. "Most of our customers believe AirWave is the best solution for managing multivendor networks." The only alternative, he said, is to deploy multiple management applications to accommodate network diversity. AirWave, which reported approximately $8 million in revenue in fiscal 2007, currently has about 400 customers. Aruba will gain about 50 employees through the acquisition, half of whom are engineers, the company said. In the short term, Aruba will sell both the AirWave and Aruba MMS products. Later this year, the provider will roll out a new product that merges the features of both solutions, Orr said. "This will be one of the key differentiators for Aruba as an enterprise networking supplier, so you can bet on our focused attention [in] making sure that from an R&D perspective, the AirWave platform continues to excel," Orr told analysts. Even after the merger, Aruba wants to continue to build AirWave out as a leader in multivendor management, he said. For companies using wireless devices, managing the unwired enterprise of wireless LAN (WLAN), mesh, and WiFi is one of the biggest management bottlenecks. Analysts agree that network management is an often overlooked, yet important element in wireless. "Network management is an essential component of every WLAN solution, but is usually the piece that receives the least attention," said Michael Brandenburg, enterprise network systems analyst for Current Analysis, in a statement. "We consider Aruba's acquisition of AirWave to be a strategic move that sets it apart in its ability to centralize management of the all too common multi-vendor WLAN deployment." Paul DeBeasi, senior analyst at the Burton Group, echoed Brandenburg's statements, saying, "Network management is the glue that interlinks the components of a system, and Aruba has acquired a leading player in the market. In so doing, it has established an industry-unique multi-vendor capability," he said in a statement.