Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company, is a company selling wired and wireless networking equipment and software, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Ruckus offers Wi-Fi, switching, cloud and software products to mobile carriers, broadband service providers, and corporate enterprises. Ruckus invented and has patented wireless voice, video, and data technology, such as adaptive antenna arrays that extend signal range, increase client data rates, and avoid interference, providing distribution of delay-sensitive multimedia content and services over standard 802.11 Wi-Fi. On April 4, 2016, Brocade Communications Systems announced that it was acquiring Ruckus Wireless for approximately $1.5 billion. Brocade completed its acquisition of Ruckus Wireless on May 27, 2016. After Brocade was acquired by Broadcom Limited, Ruckus was acquired by the Arris Group for $800 million on December 1, 2017.
History
Ruckus was founded in 2004 by William Kish and Victor Shtrom. Sequoia Capital, WK Technology Fund, and Sutter Hill Ventures initially funded the company. Ruckus was publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RKUS. In 2015, Ruckus Wireless became the first Wi-Fi vendor to introduce an 802.11ac Wave 2 access point with the ZoneFlex R710. The R710 is capable of supporting twice the density of mobile devices over Wave 1 access points. The acquisition by Brocade in a cash and stock deal worth about $1.5 billion is meant to add Ruckus’s Wi-Fi products to Brocade's enterprise networking business. In November 2016 Broadcom announced their intention to acquire Brocade for $5.9 billion In February 2017 ARRIS announced their intention to acquire Ruckus Wireless—pending the sale of parent company Brocade to Broadcom. The new multi-gigabit solution includes the Ruckus ICX 7150 Z-Series Switch, and the Ruckus R720 802.11ac Wave 2 access point. The announcement that Brocade Communications Systems Inc. is merging its Ruckus and ICX product lines in a sign that it's laying the groundwork for the planned divestiture of both businesses to ARRIS Group Inc.. In November 2018 it was announced that Commscope would purchase Arris along with Ruckus and the ICX switching component of Brocade for 7.4 billion. The acquisition was completed in April 2019 In December 2019, it was announced that a security researcher had found several vulnerabilities in the web user interface software that runs on a number of Ruckus Wireless routers, which the company had since patched.
Technology
Ruckus designed an adaptive directional antenna technology called BeamFlex. The company first sold the technology to other manufacturers to enable them to include it in their products. Ruckus also came out with a Customer Premises Equipment device that was sold to service providers. Ruckus offers indoor and outdoor access points in several price ranges. BeamFlex is at the core of Ruckus’ ZoneFlex APs with its directional antenna technology. This technology automatically adjusts to changes in the Radio Frequency environment providing stronger signals. Beamforming has now been integrated into the latest version of the 802.11 standard and 802.11ac. Other products that Ruckus offers include controllers, software, and smart wireless services.
Hardware
Ruckus offers Wi-Fi branded products such as indoor and outdoor wireless access points and wireless controllers all sold under the brand name.
Access points
Ruckus offers wireless access points that can support up to 500 simultaneous connections on a single node. In 2007, Ruckus launched ZoneFlex, a centrally managed WLAN platform for enterprises and carriers.
Controllers
Ruckus traditionally offered two different controllers: ZoneDirector geared for smaller, single-site deployments and SmartZone directed at carrier and large, multi-site enterprise deployments. SmartZone can be delivered as both a virtual and physical appliance. In mid-2016 Ruckus added Cloud Wi-Fi, a cloud-based WLAN controller that enables administrators to remotely manage distributed sites using a web UI or mobile app. Ruckus Cloud Wi-Fi is a subscription service.
Switches
Ruckus ICX switches feature the ability to manage multiple switches from a single IP address. The streamlined efficiency of the Layer 2 to Layer 3 transition requires no upgrades in hardware. Moreover, ICX products allow stacking with other like model switches for improved network device interoperability.
Software
Ruckus Wireless provides software-products to accompany their hardware. They offer the FlexMaster, SmartCell Insight, Ruckus ZonePlanner, Cloudpath, Ruckus Cloud Wi-Fi and Ruckus Mobile Applications.
The Ruckus Unleashed Multi-Site Manager Management is a Linux-based managed service platform for configuration, fault detection, audit, performance management and optimization of hundreds of thousands of remote Smart Wi-Fi APs or Smart Wireless LANs from a single point.
SmartCell Insight
The Ruckus SmartCell Insight collects and correlates Wi-Fi performance metrics into 19 available reports, has do it yourself analytics using customer reports, long term retention, and software only solution residing on a Linux server using CENTOS/RHEL OS.
ZonePlanner
The Ruckus ZonePlanner is a Smart Wi-Fi RF simulation. It integrates Ruckus’ adaptive antenna patterns.
Ruckus mobile applications
Ruckus Wireless has mobile applications called Ruckus SpeedFlex, Ruckus ZD Remote Control, and Ruckus SWIPE.
Unleashed
Ruckus Unleashed is a controller-less platform for small and medium businesses that includes controller functionality in each access point, negating the need for a separate network appliance to manage the Wi-Fi access points.
Location services
Ruckus SPoT provides its customers with location-based services.
Cloudpath
Cloudpath began secure Wi-Fi onboarding — securely verifying, connecting and logging in Wi-Fi users — in 2006 and has since become a leader in certificate-based Wi-Fi security with its automated, self-service software.
Enterprises
Ruckus relies heavily on its enterprise business, as it is two-thirds of their revenue with almost 100% of enterprise sales coming from the channel. Many of these enterprises include hospitality, retail, healthcare, transportation hubs, and education.
Carriers
Ruckus Wireless started out by selling to carrier companies and they are still a good portion of their business. Their customers include C3ntro Telecom, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Deutsche Telekom, and China Telecom. One-third of Ruckus’ business is selling to carrier businesses.
Small businesses
Xclaim Wireless was launched by Ruckus in 2014 as a new division aimed at small businesses. Xclaim Wireless provides a product portfolio designed for enterprise-class features at consumer-level prices.
