Ruckus Networks this week announced the release of Ruckus One, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cloud-native platform with a single dashboard that the company hopes will simplify converged network management across multi-access public and private networks.

Mittal Parekh, senior director of Ruckus Networks at CommScope, told SDxCentral that Ruckus One is a more integrated approach than what the company had previously provided. The AI is now integrated into a unified management approach, whereas previous iterations had components outside of the core product. The AI was available, but the panel was separate – today everything is integrated into a single pane of glass and they live together.

With this boost in AI capabilities, Parekh said Ruckus One is able to ensure that enterprises and service providers can prevent incidents before they affect service delivery. The technology is also used to provide proactive recommendations to improve and optimize the network overall as well.

In the same announcement, Ruckus said it’s now also offering a new multi-access public and private (MAPP) solution. Parekh said MAPP enables organizations to deploy networks leveraging private cellular alone or as a converged network using a multi-access mix of Wi-Fi, IoT, wired and private cellular.

"We aspire to be a one-stop-shop for licensed and unlicensed private network applications leveraging our expertise in Wi-Fi, 5G, IoT, and edge solutions, services and security," he said.

In a third announcement, Ruckus One said it is now offering a network-as-a-service (NaaS) program. Chris DePuy, founder and technology analyst at 650 Group, told SDxCentral this allows the Ruckus brand to target a wider customer audience because some customers want to engage in a monthly relationship with their network vendor.

DePuy commented that from his perspective, the Ruckus One strategy is what customers want because it consolidates management of multiple network elements, including wireless LAN, private cellular, Ethernet Switching and WAN, as well as enabling improved troubleshooting, configuration and network management.

Parekh said Ruckus One is an evolution of the company's cloud platform that originally got started in 2016 with the launch of Ruckus Cloud Wi-Fi.

"That platform evolved over time and, in 2020, we launched our very first AI-enabled cloud-management platform for Wi-Fi and switches," he said. "Today, that platform has evolved into what we call Ruckus One."

As a company, Ruckus got its start two decades ago in 2002, originally with a core focus on wireless networking equipment. In 2016, Ruckus was acquired by Brocade in a $1.2 billion deal. Brocade ran into some financial trouble the following year and was acquired by Broadcom for $5.9 billion. As part of the Broadcom deal, Brocade had to first divest some assets, including Ruckus. 

Arris acquired Ruckus from Brocade in 2017 for $800 million. At the same time, the company's founder, Selina Lo, retired from Ruckus, creating somewhat of a leadership vacuum. Two years later, in 2019, CommScope acquired Arris in a $7.4 billion deal.

While there have been a whirlwind of ownership changes at Ruckus in recent years, the networking business unit is now led at CommScope by longtime Ruckus employee Bart Giordano. Giordano started at Ruckus in 2015 and as part of CommScope, he is the president of networking, intelligence cellular and security (NICS).

"CommScope has done a good job under Bart Giordano’s management," DePuy told SDxCentral. "He stabilized market share trends during COVID and has seen a spike in revenue growth as the supply chain has normalized. And while these supply chain challenges were happening, the company was able to significantly modernize its services offerings."