In a recent AirWave customer survey, more than 70% of respondents indicated that they plan to test or evaluate a new wireless hardware provider by the end of 2008. That’s probably related to the introduction of 802.11n products — when organizations are evaluating new technologies and hardware upgrades, it’s a natural time for them to consider vendor selection.

Someone recently asked me how many vendors an organization should consider when performing an evaluation. There’s no right answer for every situation, but I usually recommend looking at three providers. More than that can be unwieldy and burn internal resources unnecessarily… In most cases, unless you’ve been burned by an unresponsive vendor, you will want to look at your incumbent provider’s new products. You should also evaluate at least one close competitor of your incumbent, so you can really understand technology differences, support capabilities, and other factors. For the third candidate, consider a vendor with a highly differentiated technology or product architecture — you may not select them as your primary vendor, but you might discover some niche solutions that will work extremely well in certain environments.