Cisco Systems, Motorola, and others now offer 3G interfaces that can provide backups for branch offices and locations with minimal WAN connectivity, or for failover of critical applications. And WLAN security can beat that of most wired LANs--yes, you read that right. Sites looking into desktop virtualization should do fine on an all-Wi-Fi network as well, thanks to the small packet sizes inherent in virtual desktop infrastructures.
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Motorola sees 802.11n as an inflection point in the industry and has adopted the slogan "Wireless by default and wired by exception." It and other vendors are practicing what they preach, deploying ubiquitous WLANs in their own offices.
Should you follow suit?
Although wireless vendors such as Motorola are happy to promote the wire-free office concept, Ethernet switch sellers, including Cisco and Hewlett-Packard, approach the concept with caution. That's not surprising: Switch vendors stand to lose big money as we move away from Ethernet to the desktop. Even if companies pay the manufacturer's suggested retail price for enterprise-class 802.11n gear, it's still much less expensive per user than a new 10/100/1,000-Mbps switch deployment with $250-per-drop wiring costs.CAREFUL STEPS
But don't feel too bad for Cisco--no enterprise WLAN vendor is claiming to replace wire at the core or distribution layers, and besides its wire-side dominance, Cisco owns more than half of the enterprise WLAN market with its wireless gear set, originally from Aironet and later supplemented with its Airespace acquisition. Chris Kozup, manager for mobility solutions at Cisco, emphasizes that the company is making the most of its leadership in both wired and wireless with a "unified" network approach that blankets the office with Wi-Fi while keeping a few wired ports at every workstation. Nice if you can afford it. Cisco is clearly cautious in its pronouncements regarding the all-wireless office. Don't look to the WLAN gear leader to be in front of this charge.
No. 2 switch vendor HP, which mixes some of its own Wi-Fi gear with licensed technology, is also approaching the all-wireless office carefully. Andre Kindness, Americas security and mobility solution manager for ProCurve networking, says HP's customers are driving that stance. Companies are looking to reduce their operational costs through a consistent management system that covers both wireline and wireless and provides product longevity, Kindness says. However, such management doesn't yet exist. Cisco talks about a unified network, but it's not yet providing integrated management. HP openly discussed the problem of inconsistent management tools between wired and wireless networks, and we see it making the most credible progress of any of the "we do both wired and wireless" players. Other vendors looking to cover these bases include Nortel Networks, which says it's developing its own 802.11n gear--essentially shunning its OEM partner, Trapeze Networks--and Enterasys, Extreme Networks, Foundry Networks, and Juniper Networks, all of which are OEMs or resell wireless products.
