InfoWorld ran a story I wrote about the difference between WLAN switches and gateway solutions: It was a rough process pulling this together, but the result is accurate.
The story is designed for IT managers who want to install a wide-scale WLAN but must decide between the different management tools that are available today. While I generally categorized the solutions as gateways, layer 2 switches, and layer 3 switches, each option has its own idiosyncrasies that make it unique. Those subtle differences make it hard to come up with generalizations about which solution best meets any given enterprise need.
I hate to suggest a move that will slow down market adoption, but after writing this story I think if I were an IT manager I'd probably put off the decision as long as I could. There are too many start ups in the market and too many different ways of managing a big network to be able to make a smart choice on a product that is likely to survive for very long.
This sidebar offers some more details about the risk and uncertainty in the WLAN management space.
Excellent article. Too many of the trade press articles focus on gee-whiz technologies instead of "Is this a good fit?"