Ericsson’s acquisition of Cradlepoint for $1.1 billion highlights the growing importance of enterprise and non-telecoms (i.e. industry vertical) networks, particularly in the era of 5G. And while the news can initially be understood as increasing competitiveness against the likes of Cisco, Juniper and Nokia, the real significance may lie in its changed relationship with its traditional CSP customers. Enterprise challenges Cradlepoint has a strong position in Wireless Edge and WAN market. Pairing this with Ericsson’s strong 5G story makes a lot of sense in creating a credible enterprise edge proposition. However, it also highlights some of the challenges faced by traditional network providers and their vendors in selling to enterprise. Ericsson has for years had a very clear policy that it sells to, and through CSPs. Historically, this made sense, by not confusing its major customers. However, it meant that companies like Ericsson were reliant on the credibility of CSPs in selling to enterprise. This worked where the primary product for enterprise was communications. However, with 5G and increasing commoditisation of connectivity the proposition needs to be more than communications alone. (CSP’s recognition of the need for better industry vertical domain knowledge and broader solutions was a recurring theme at last week’s FutureNet conference.) Cradlepoint remains […]