Introduction
Market Dynamics
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
Competitive Landscape
Promotions and Resources
Competitive Analysis
How to Increase Your Wireless Win Rates
MAY 2015
January
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Introduction
The purpose of this battle card is to help you increase your win rates against other
wireless competitors in the Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China (APJC) region.
There are four key takeaways:
• Provide high-level insights on market dynamics and messages resonating in
today’s market
Introduction
Market Dynamics
• Understand market share and win rate fluctuations so that you are aware of
Cisco’s challenge
• Understand what key competitors’ claims are and how Cisco responds
• Understand key offers to help you more effectively close deals
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
Competitive Landscape
Promotions and Resources
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Market Dynamics
In today’s market, organizations are focused on staying ahead of the mobility surge to provide a reliable,
safe and secure wireless user experience regardless of the devices employees are using. To ensure
employee productivity and customer retention, it’s important that customers prepare not only for what is
here today (802.11n and ac) but also for what’s on the near-term horizon (802.11ac Wave 2). Greater
bandwidth requirements, reliability, coverage, and security are top of mind.
Introduction
Market Dynamics
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
To get these benefits, existing access points need to be upgraded to the newer Cisco® Aironet® 3700,
2700, and 1700 Series Access Points. For details on all the latest Cisco Access Points, visit www.cisco.
com/go/ap. Features include:
• Cisco CleanAir™ technology for RF interference management
• Cisco ClientLink for improved coverage and performance
Customer networks also need more access points (one per 2500 square feet) to increase reach and
density, improve user experience, and support pervasive mobility. Precise location-based services,
used in generating customer loyalty and growing revenue, require even higher-density access point
deployments (one per 1000 square feet).
Competitive Landscape
Promotions and Resources
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Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
The vendors with the greatest share of presence in APJC are Aruba, HP, Juniper, Ruckus, and Huawei. By
arming yourself with competitive insights about these vendors, coupled with pricing actions you can take,
you can reverse that win rate trend in Cisco’s favor.
Introduction
Market Dynamics
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
Competitive Landscape
Promotions and Resources
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Competitive Landscape
Cisco provides on-premise and cloud-managed solutions, as does HP/Aruba. To understand how to
position Cisco, refer to Tables 1 and 2 to assess the customer environment and be aware of which
vendors offer on-premise and cloud-managed solutions for WLANs.
Table 1. Customer Profiles for Solution Types
Customer profile
On-Premise
• Many smaller branches
• Extensive and sophisticated • IT support at the campus
IT environment
and limited support at the
branch
• Limited public cloud
• Prefers public cloud
services
Introduction
• Limited network expertise
• Limited IT support at many
locations
Market Dynamics
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
Cloud-Managed
Hybrid
• Network configuration and
operation expertise
• Flexibility and control on
campus
• Sufficient IT at many
locations
• Fast deployment and simple
management at the branch
Table 2. High-Level Competitive Positioning
Competitor
Share of Presence*
(Asia Pacific and Japan)
Share of Presence*
(Greater China)
Competitive Landscape
Aruba controller-based
solution
40.8%
17.1%
Promotions and Resources
Aruba Instant with
Aruba Central
Included in above
Included in above
HP
14.5%
13.6%
Huawei
–
60.2%
Juniper
7%
1%
Ruckus
5.8%
–
On-Premise
Cloud-Managed
*S
hare of presence = dollar participation rate in deals as reported by Cisco Sales
(trailing 12 months, shares are as of Q3CY14).
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Competitive Landscape
Competitor Claims and Cisco Response
With the recently announced Hewlett-Packard acquisition of Aruba Networks, there are a few key things
you need to know. HP will face the following challenges:
• Lack of comprehensive campus networking strategy
• Overlapping wireless product lines and lack of clear positioning between HP and Aruba
• Lack of clearly positioned technical support services portfolios
Introduction
Market Dynamics
• HP has struggled to successfully integrate big acquisitions
• How will HP manage the sales, service, and partner overlaps?
Table 3 describes Cisco’s response to competitor claims.
Table 3. Competitor Claims and Cisco’s Response
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
Competitive Landscape
Promotions and Resources
Competitor Claim
Competitor
Cisco Response
Superior 802.11ac
performance compared to
Cisco.
Aruba/HP
Lead with on-premise Cisco High Density Experience (HDX) and
show Cisco’s superior investment in access point hardware.
Superior “multivendor” bringAruba/HP
your-own-device (BYOD) policy
support with ClearPass.
Cisco access points offer greater performance and have more
CPU and memory with unique innovation at the chip level. Aruba
uses merchant silicon with no hardware.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) 1.3 provides simplified guest
and BYOD. ISE authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA)
supports a multivendor environment, and you can import RADIUS
libraries from any vendor. For a cloud-managed solution, Cisco
Meraki® mobile device management is provided via Systems
Manager.
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Competitive Landscape
Competitor Claim
Competitor
Cisco Response
“Controllerless” in the branch
with Instant access points,
and devaluing the controller by
including it for free within the
access point.
Aruba/HP
Lead with public cloud (Cisco Meraki) and private cloud
(Cisco FlexConnect™). In both cases Cisco simplifies branch
deployments and reduces the number of touch points to manage.
Aruba’s claim is misleading, since there is a virtual controller at
every site that runs on the Instant access points and must be
managed.
Position Cisco Mobility Express Bundle today: Buy two 802.11ac
access points and get a WLC2504 controller and license for
25 access points for almost no added cost. It comes with
over-the-air embedded user interface that enables easy setup
within 5 minutes.
Introduction
Market Dynamics
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
Competitive Landscape
Promotions and Resources
In addition to its own LAN
switching platforms, Aruba has
partnered with Cisco’s top LAN
switching competitors, with the
latest addition being Juniper.
The list also includes Alcatel,
Brocade, HP, and Dell.
Aruba/HP
Provide the highest-performing, Aruba/HP
smartest, and most reliable
wireless solution in the industry.
• Hardware innovation such
as purpose-built 802.11ac
access point
With the HP acquisition, there are no longer any options,
except HP. Dell has already switched to Aerohive.
Aruba uses merchant silicon and does not innovate at the chip
level. Cisco provides superior RF performance and superior client
performance by integrating enterprise features such as HDX,
ClientLink, and Cisco CleanAir.
• Software innovation such as
ClientMatch
• Layer 7 application visibility
with AppRF
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Competitive Landscape
Introduction
Market Dynamics
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
Competitive Landscape
Promotions and Resources
Competitor Claim
Competitor
Cisco Response
Aruba Central delivers a
full-featured cloud-managed
solution via a subscriptionbased public cloud to manage
Aruba Instant access points.
Aruba/HP
Position and demonstrate the Cisco Meraki Dashboard. Aruba
cannot compete with the ease of use, depth of features, and
innovation that Meraki offers.
Aruba has launched Mobile
Device Engagement 2.0
through its Meridian acquisition
and now offers analytics and a
location engine (ALE).
Aruba/HP
With over eight years of development, the Cisco Mobility
Services Engine (MSE) and Connected Mobile Experiences have
significant advantages in accuracy, performance, and functionality
and are enabling customers to use big data analytics and enhance
end-user engagement.
Positioned in Gartner’s Wired
and Wireless LAN Access
Layer leader’s quadrant for the
third consecutive year.
HP/Aruba
Cisco has maintained the leadership position in Gartner’s Magic
Quadrant for a number of years.
HP’s Cloud Managed
Networking offers enterpriseclass performance with
simplified management, lower
cost, and 100% uptime.
HP/Aruba
HP’s Cloud Managed Networking solution is an OEM offering from
Aruba that lacks completeness and feature velocity. HP’s offering
addresses only wireless access, in contrast to the Cisco Meraki
solution, which provides converged access and security.
Ubiquitous efficient network
(wired, Wi-Fi, and 3G/4G).
Huawei
Challenge customers to ask for specific proof points and customer
references. Other than their own offices deploying BYOD, they
don’t have any proof points.
Integrated wired and wireless
access.
Huawei
Huawei’s unified access is only a point product with a wireless
controller and switching shipping. Policy management is a
roadmap item.
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Competitive Landscape
Competitor Claim
Competitor
Cisco Response
Open enterprise networking
infrastructure; emphasizes
partnership with Aruba.
Juniper
Cisco products work better together in a true network
architecture; Juniper’s dependence on Aruba creates a major gap,
given HP’s acquisition of Aruba.
Enterprise focused.
Ruckus
The bulk of Ruckus’s development effort is toward service
providers, and it lacks enterprise features related to security and
management.
Ruckus does not invest in LAN switching or routing, and Gartner
has dropped Ruckus from the Unified Access Magic Quadrant for
lack of a unified access strategy.
Introduction
Market Dynamics
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
Better performance over range, Ruckus
which it claims translates to
fewer access points.
The fact is that with BYOD and 802.11ac, Wi-Fi cells are getting
smaller, not bigger, and high client density requires unique
capabilities in multicell access point deployments.
Competitive Landscape
Promotions and Resources
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Promotions and Resources
Sales and Partner Resources
Table 4 lists incentives targeted to customers and partners.
Table 4. Customer and Partner Incentives and Promotions
Customer/Partner
Incentive/Promotion
Cisco Mobility Express Bundle
Introduction
Market Dynamics
Product Focus
Discount Amount
Buy two 802.11ac access points
and get a wireless controller and
license for 25 access points for
almost no added cost. Simple and
affordable 802.11ac wireless in one
box. Easy over-the-air setup in five
minutes.
Cisco Mobility Express comes in
three different bundles designed for
a variety of different network sizes
and feature needs.
• (2) Cisco Aironet access points
(choose among the 1700, 2700,
and 3700 Series)
• (1) Cisco 2504 Wireless
Controller
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
• (25) access point licenses
Competitive Landscape
Cisco Midmarket Accelerator
Program
Promotions and Resources
Earn reward points for selling
networking infrastructure and
redeem for great gift items. Special
promotion on Cisco Mobility Express
Bundles until 26 July 2015.
Participate and meet the rewards
criteria in the Wireless Changes
Everything, Switching Acceleration,
or Next-Generation iWAN
Acceleration promotions, and win up
to 2700 points.
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Promotions and Resources
Partner Resources
• Wireless LAN competitive portal: Piranha battle cards and quick reference guides
• Gartner Magic Quadrant for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure and
Cisco Response – June 2014
• For more competitive information, visit Partner Central.
Introduction
Market Dynamics
Cisco’s Win Rate Challenge
Competitive Landscape
Promotions and Resources
Home
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Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R) For Channel Partner use only. Not for distribution.
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