AP332 Access Point with Innovative 802.11ac Investment Protection Plan and MC6000 Controller Deliver Choice and Control to IT Managers and Protect Wireless Infrastructure Investments
Sunnyvale, Calif.– October 10, 2012 – Meru Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:MERU), a leader in 802.11n wireless networking, today announced the availability of the industry’s highest capacity wireless controller, the MC6000; a BYOD-ready high performance access point the AP332; and an innovative 802.11ac Investment Protection Plan that protects wireless infrastructure investments as the 802.11 wireless standard evolves.
The new, ultra-capacity wireless products are the latest advancements in Meru wireless innovation and engineered to address the crushing network requirements of BYOD while maintaining choice and control of both wireless and wired network infrastructure for resource stretched IT departments. The innovative 802.11ac Investment Protection Plan allows users purchasing AP332 and other three stream 802.11n access points to trade them in for 802.11ac access points in future for only an additional $499 investment*.
“The number of mobile devices has been doubling each of the last three years in campuses and enterprises—and the sheer number of devices and demand for wireless bandwidth is outpacing the capacity of legacy wireless networks,” said Manish Rai, VP Product Marketing for Meru. “This rapid increase of wireless demand requires innovative approaches, such as Meru’s new offerings that deliver both high capacity and performance, for handling not only the volume of devices but also the increased demand for wireless bandwidth.”
Meru vice president of product and solutions marketing, Manish Rai added: “For the first time in history users are dictating what technology they will bring and use at work. To manage the crush of BYOD, IT needs a flexible solution that can help them quickly responds to changing wireless network demands. Meru with its RF virtualization technology, virtualized controllers and market leading BYOD on-boarding solution – Identity Manager – delivers flexibility at access, control and policy layers needed to put the control and choice back in the hands of IT.”
BYOD-Optimized MC6000
The Meru MC6000 ultra-high capacity 802.11ac ready controller is designed to effectively serve 5,000+ access points and 50,000+ users with 200 Gbps wireless capacity. Powered by System Director – the industry’s only virtualized wireless LAN operating system – the new controller delivers the capacity and performance for very high-density network environments. The new controller gives IT executives the ability to choose network components and control network operations without compromising capacity, performance, scalabilty or security.
Next Generation AP332 Delivers Fifty Percent More Capacity
The Meru AP332 access point, an innovative, three-stream 802.11n access point, delivers fifty-percent higher capacity than two stream dual-radio access points. It meets the capacity needs of dense wi-fi and high multimedia usage environments such as lecture halls, dorm rooms, stadiums and conference centers.
Most of today’s smartphones and tablets operate in the crowded 2.4 GHz frequency band. The upcoming 802.11ac standard operates only in the 5 GHz frequency band and will not address BYOD capacity crunch for several years, according to industry research. This dramatically increases the need for large capacity wireless.
Rai added, “Meru’s AP332 with its unique RF virtualization technology can deliver nearly twice the capacity with same number of access points in dense environments such as lecture halls, conference rooms, stadiums and enterprise campuses. When coupled with Identity Manager, Meru’s market leading solution for automating BYOD on-boarding proven at over 2,500 deployments, Meru offers the best end-to-end solution to manage the BYOD capacity crunch today.”
Innovative 802.11ac Investment Protection Plan
The new access point, available now, comes with Meru’s innovative 802.11ac Investment Protection Plan. Through the plan, customers that purchase Meru’s AP332s, AP320s or AP443s between October 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013, will have an option to pay additional $499 per access point and trade them in for qualifying Meru 802.11ac access points when they become available.
The 802.11ac trade-in plan protects enterprises against the anticipated 802.11ac adoption. It ensures any investments made in Meru AP products today can be upgraded to 802.11ac in the future for a nominal price. Through the program, Meru customers have access to robust wireless solutions today without compromising their ability to take advantage of future technology advancements.
More at www.merunetworks.com