Gartner Report Calls Alcatel-Lucent Networking Portfolio 'Visionary'

A new report published by Gartner Group lists Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) as one of its “visionaries” for the company’s strong networking strategy, range of networking switches and its Application Fluent Network (AFN).

The report, “Magic Quadrant for the Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure,” identifies key vendors in the LAN access infrastructure space, breaking the list into four categories, or “magic quadrants” (MQ). Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALU) was listed as a visionary niche player, challenging leaders such as Cisco (News - Alert) and HP Networking.

Visionaries are defined in the report as companies who have innovated in one or more key area of access layer technologies such as convergence or security, and who also have demonstrated their ability to continue to add unique features that differentiate their offerings.

“ALU should be on the shortlist for any European wired or wireless infrastructure decisions, with consideration for other geographical areas,” said report authors Tim Zimmerman and Mark Fabbi. “ALU has a strong networking strategy and is executing not only with platform development, but also with a strong orchestration message that integrates network applications that complement its offering.”

The report also cites ALU’s complete range of stackable switches, which “provides flexibility at the edge of the network,” and the company’s Multimedia Fluency capabilities, which “enhance its strong voice capabilities by capturing information that allows mean opinion score (MOS), latency and jitter information to monitor the infrastructure.”

ALU is happy with the recognition, notedStephane Robineau, VP of Network Business for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.

“We’re very pleased to be recognized as a key player in the latest Gartner (News - Alert) Wireless and Wired LAN Magic Quadrant,” Robineau said. “Since launching our Application Fluent Network vision in 2010, our Network team has continuously innovated, bringing award-winning solutions to market such as recently introduced OmniSwitch 6450.”

The company is on a roll, he added: “With the Interop (News - Alert) 2011 Best of Show Data Center & Storage award, the new Gartner MQ position is another proof point that our AFN vision for Enterprise Networks is relevant to corporations focusing on quality of user experience and application performance as key factors.”

The Magic Quadrant is a tool developed to help technology buyers select appropriate vendor products in the networking space, Gartner explained in the report. Company inclusion is based on opinion from Gartner’s research organization, although the firm does not officially endorse any vendor, product or service mentioned.