ReefEdge Eyes European Wi-Fi Market

Wireless network infrastructure maker ReefEdge recently opened two facilities in Europe as it readies to make a push in the fast-growing market.

The Fort Lee, N.J., company has established a European Development Center in Rennes, France, where engineers will work to expand its product line to meet the needs of the international customers.

In addition, a new London office will serve as Reef Edge’s sales base and will be run by Albert Benhamou, managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa. Previously, Benhamou held management posts at Loudcloud, Cisco Systems and Mirapoint.

“Our European operations will help ReefEdge directly participate in this rapidly growing and innovative market,” said said Ajei Gopal, ReefEdge CEO. “We will also be better positioned to meet the needs of our U.S.-based customers with operations in Europe.”

Projections for the Wi-Fi market are among the rosiest in IT. At the 802.11 Planet Conference & Expo this week, an industry group said the $2 billion Wi-Fi industry should expand at an compounded growth rate of 30 percent to nearly a $6 billion industry, putting it on par with household name brands like Budweiser and in line with growth in the mobile PC industry.

ReefEdge’s Connect System is designed to address security, usability and management needs of enterprise wireless LAN (define) deployments. It features built-in support for data and voice and delivers services on a scalable enterprise-grade platform.

Richard Webb, a European network and WLAN analyst at Infonetics, said companies on the continent are “comfortable with the concept of wireless technology.”

“As enterprises increasingly enjoy the freedom portable data allows, their reliance on WLANs will bring challenges — principally network security, scalability and management.

Webb said ReefEdge’s product — which includes authentication and encryption, and bandwidth management features — covers those areas of concern. In addition to its direct sales operation, ReefEdge has struck deal with systems integrators and consultants in Europe, including e92plus (United Kingdom), SEiCOM (Germany) and IPELIUM (France).