Trapeze Networks Reveals New Product Line

By George Walsh, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

Wireless Networking Equipment Designed to Untether Devices in Corporate Networks

Trapeze Networks, a provider of wireless networking technologies located at 5753 W. Las Positas Boulevard, has announced a new kind of wireless data networking equipment that is intended to be used in the buildings of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 corporations. Trapeze, which was founded in March 2002, occupies about 42,000 square feet and employs over 100 people. The company is backed by Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures and has received approximately $16 million in first-round funding.

The Trapeze Mobility System will enable people to roam around inside a building and still allow their laptops, wireless PDAs and eventually digital phones to communicate with the corporate network. While supporting the popular 802.11 wireless networking standard, it will also support a number of other standards. "Its got some unique new capabilities that you just don't find in other products," says George Prodan, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Trapeze Networks. "It gives IT managers the ability to really plan and manage the air within a corporation and within a building and actually lay out the entire interior coverage area based on a building floor plan in digital format."

The Trapeze Mobility System isn't intended to replace the current network infrastructure already in place within organizations. "One of the fundamental things that we do is enable the IT manager to seamlessly integrate this system with the wired network," Prodan says. "That's been one of the hurdles to wireless thus far."

One of the other ongoing issues with wireless networking has been security. While it's relatively simple to allow or deny users access to physical network cables, many are unsure whether shooting data through the airwaves is safe enough to keep outsiders from accessing corporate information. However, Trapeze's Mobility System is not only user friendly, but secure. "Trapeze Networks Mobility System eliminates all the key concerns of the chief information officers of corporations," Prodan says. "It will it make it possible for them to seamlessly integrate, plan, and deploy, as well as to provide secure mobility to their corporations." Much of the reason that Trapeze chose to place its offices in Hacienda has to do with the large pool of talent in the area. "A lot of the people who work here live in this region and a couple of our co-founders are living in the surrounding area, so it's easy for them to get to the office," Prodan says. "It's easy to recruit here because so many people who live in this area were making that horrendous commute over the hill into Silicon Valley. They welcome a local office."

Photo: Trapeze Networks' new Mobility System will enable corporate IT managers to seamlessly integrate wireless networking with their existing local area networks.

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