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<span class="artsectiontitle">bMighty</span><br>
<span class="mainarttitle"><b>Small Biz Wi-Fi Strategies</b></span><br>
<span class="mainartauthor">Carmen Nobel</span> <span
class="mainartdate">10.22.07, 6:00 AM ET</span>
<p>In
the world of computer networking, Selina Lo is an entrepreneurial whiz.
She co-founded Centillion Networks, a switching technology start-up
that Bay Networks bought in 1994 for $100 million. In 1996, she joined
Alteon WebSystems, a Web switch company that <org>Nortel Networks</org>
bought in 2000 for a cool $7.8 billion.</p>
<p>These days, Lo is CEO of Ruckus Wireless, formerly Video54
Technologies. The company was founded in 2004 with a focus on wireless
video. Last May, it decided to enter the small and midsize business
market with a wi-fi product line of access points and controllers
called ZoneFlex. Lo recently talked to bMighty about Ruckus' brief
history, its product plans and its exit strategy. </p>
<p><strong>bMighty: So what's in a name? Why "Ruckus?"</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Selina Lo:</strong> It represents our spirit. We tend to be
loud and a little bold in the promises we make. And when we deliver, we
let everyone know about it. Video54 was a name that was endearing to
the engineers. It had the "Studio 54" hint, and the reference to 54
megabits [per second] and it was focused on video. But we realized that
video wasn't our only gate. And we knew that [data rates] were going
beyond 54 megabits. And we knew the name Video54 pegged us as a
consumer electronics company, solely. And we didn't want that. So we
became Ruckus. </p>
<p><strong>When the company was founded, you <em>were</em> focused
solely on video over </strong><strong>wi-fi</strong> <strong>,
and your customers were primarily telecommunications companies who
wanted to offer wi-fi to consumers. What made you decide to enter the
small and midsize business market as well? </strong></p>
<p>A lot of [service providers] started using our products for
multi-tenant buildings, and they started calling us to ask for
centralized management. We'd get calls from a lot of systems
integrators and service providers who were offering managed services to
condos and vacation properties. They wanted to manage [the access
points] all together. We were getting feedback that, given how good our
product was, if we would add centralized management, our product would
be a lot more extensible. At the same time, we ran into a small company
[called AirSpider], which had built a really good SMB management
solution. We felt that it would be easily integrated with our RF
technology, and we acquired that company and started the integration
process at the end of last year.</p>
<p><strong>What are the specific wi-fi needs of small and midsize
businesses? Explain your company's assertion that before you launched
ZoneFlex, none of the wi-fi equipment makers were serving the niche
between the home office and the larger enterprise. </strong></p>
<p>Well, when we say small and midsize businesses, we tend to think of
offices, but the category also includes hotels, vacation resorts and
vacation properties that are run by a franchise. These places have a
lot of remote chains, and each of them needs a smallish network of 10
to 30 access points. Consumer-level products aren't scalable; they
might be fine for supporting fewer than 20 people, but beyond that you
can't scale and control them independently. But buying something big
from Aruba [Networks] or Cisco won't work, either, because it's so
expensive and you need an IT team to manage it. A lot of times with the
Cisco and Aruba solutions, you have to deal with costs and licenses
that make the hardware much more expensive.</p>
<p>These customers still need a reliable wireless solution, but they
don't need all the bells and whistles like firewalls and VPN
concentrators. We like to say that [other companies] are addressing the
Fortune 500, and we are addressing the unfortunate 50,000.</p>
<p><strong>If wi-fi is so hot, and if small and midsize businesses are
the fastest-growing market segment, then why aren't more wi-fi
start-ups focusing on that market? </strong></p>
<p>First of all, I think the total market potential for wi-fi is beyond
belief. There are still a lot of big companies that need to install
wi-fi networks, and there's a lot of money in big companies. SMB is not
for everyone. It's not the traditional model for start-ups.</p>
<p><strong>And you're not traditional. </strong></p>
<p>We always do things that other people think is difficult. Ruckus is
in a unique position to leverage our past three years of work. Our
first focus was the consumer, so price was a big issue and ease of use
was a big issue. So it's not like we don't already know how to make
things cheap and simple for SMB customers. We do. </p>
<p><strong>It's common for a company to target multiple types of
customers and businesses. Cisco, for example, sells everything from
cable equipment for cable operators to network-security software. But
Ruckus is small, and you haven't been around for that long. How do you
justify the decision to enter a new market as such a young company--to
your customers, your investors and your partners? Are you shifting away
from your original market focus? </strong></p>
<p>We definitely are very much still in the IPTV market, too. The thing
that allows us to participate in all these markets is that we have
developed a technology that is both scalable and unique. This RF
advantage that we have is something that can be leveraged easily to
different price points and different sizes. For us, the challenge is
distribution.</p>
<p><strong>Because you have to go through channel partners in the SMB
market? </strong></p>
<p>Selling in Europe and selling in Asia, even when [the customer] is
an operator, we still have to go through a distributor. So for the
distributors in Europe and Asia, our [entering the SMB market] is
really not that much of a change. The distribution challenge is really
a North American thing. Fortunately, we hire people who have experience
in that. People all know the market is going to explode. A lot of
distributors and channels are looking to get in. We have [deals] lined
up.</p>
<p><strong>What do you think is missing from your product line, and
from the wi-fi industry in general? </strong></p>
<p>Basically, our belief is that wi-fi is going to be ubiquitous. Look
at devices like the iPhone and the BlackBerry. But to be successfully
pervasive, wi-fi networks need to be more reliable and predictable. The
market needs something that can turn wi-fi from a high-tech,
leading-edge, complicated technology into something that is a lot
simpler to deploy and a lot more reliable. Anything that can make RF
more reliable and manageable is good for the business.</p>
<p><strong>Speaking of which, what are your product plans for 802.11n?</strong>
<em>[Editor's
Note: The 802.11n wi-fi protocol boasts data rates of up to 248
Mbits/second. While 802.11n isn't due for final standard ratification
until March 2009, many vendors are shipping "pre-N" products, or
products based on draft versions of the standard. 802.11n uses multiple
antennas to achieve a vast increase in data throughput over current
standards.] </em></p>
<p>We definitely will be shipping our 802.11n product this year, based
on draft two of the standard. In the consumer space, 802.11n has been
available for a while, but in the enterprise, it is still [under] a lot
of speculation. The enterprise will want it because of the higher
capacity, as well as the better range. But we believe that 802.11n by
itself will pose more problems for the enterprise, particularly in the
area of interference. Making sure that all these radios do not
interfere with the neighboring AP is going to be a challenge. We think
that BeamFlex technology is particularly well-suited to manage the
large number of radios, and we have designed our controllers to be very
scalable.</p>
<p><strong>What's the grand plan for the company? Are you planning to
be bought or are you planning to go public?</strong> </p>
<p>I can't say whether we're going to get bought because it takes two
to tango, but I can tell you we are not <em>trying</em>
to get bought. I've done three companies; this is my third one. I know
you have to build a company that can stand on its own two feet, and
along the way you get offers. I don't build companies just to get
bought, because if you do that then your value is automatically lower.
Or investors are bullish on us. People have offered more money than we
want to take.</p>
<p><em>Carmen Nobel</em> <em>is a journalist with an interest in
mobile computing and wireless networking. </em><em>She lives in
Watertown, Mass.</em> </p>
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