As widely anticipated that Belden’s Trapeze Networks acquisition was to those of us in and around the industry, the official announcement on Friday still produced a flurry of chatter across the wire.

Unfortunately for the parties involved, it wasn’t altogether positive or reassuring:

• Networkworld.com: “…Some might consider it a step toward vendor lock-in. And it’s not yet clear how the acquisition will affect Trapeze’s recently renewed OEM arrangement with Nortel and Belden’s with single-channel WLAN startup Extricom. Remember when Airespace was acquired by Cisco? It was a nightmarish move for Nortel and other Airespace OEMs and their customers to find alternative solutions.”
• Techworld.com: “There’s also a perception that Trapeze has been struggling - at least in terms of reaching customers. “People have been picking other suppliers largely because Trapeze does not have the market access model that someone like Cisco would have,” said the Belden executive.”
• Unstrung.com: “Between 2002 and 2004, Trapeze, along with Airespace and Aruba Wireless Networks , emerged as one of the leading startups set on managing enterprise WiFi. Since then, however, Cisco Systems Inc. bought Airespace and cemented its 60 percent-plus lead in the corporate WiFi market. Aruba and Motorola Inc. have been duking it out for the second-place spot, and other startups such as Meru Networks Inc. have been challenging for Trapeze’s share of the market.”
• Network Computing Blog: “It’s one thing to sell cables and connectors, it’s quite another to sell an enterprise networking solution with moving parts and software bits. Do enterprises typically consider buying their networking equipment from the same guys who sell them 1,000-foot spools of cable?”

While this looks to be a solid move for Belden moving forward, I have to wonder what the impact is for those who have already done business with Trapeze.

As evidenced, questions abound regarding the future of Trapeze, not only for their own customers & VARs, but for their OEM partners‘ (3Com, Nortel, D-Link, Enterasys) customers & VARs as well. What happens to their WLAN roadmap? Will they continue to receive the same support? Will Trapeze end of life (EOL) their pre-existing hardware? Will they cut their OEM relationships altogether?

These are all valid questions, and as we learned from the Airespace acquisition a few years past, it can and does get as bad as companies being stuck with gear that nobody will support.

It is with that in mind that we here at AirWave have offered everyone affected an “Investment Protection Program,” which extends discounted pricing on the AirWave Wireless Management Suite (AWMS) 6. AWMS lends folks the flexibility of a vendor-neutral management console for their legacy Trapeze/Nortel/3Com/D-Link/Enterasys gear, as well as whichever vendor(s) they eventually migrate to.

This is not the first, nor will it be the last, acquisition of its kind. And for those wary of your current hardware provider’s fate… don’t worry.

We’ll be there for you, too.