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Survivor's Guide to 2007: Mobile and Wireless

Posted by Dave Molta on December 15, 2006

In 2007, enterprises will continue to make massive investments in wireless. An increasing proportion of that spending, however, will be codified in the IT budget rather than slipped through the cracks at departmental level. And companies will get more and better technology for their money.

Take Wi-Fi. Ten years ago, a notebook NIC would set you back $600 or more. In 2007, the latest iteration of Wi-Fi--802.11n--will deliver about 100 times the performance of the original 802.11. More notable, if you adjust for inflation, you can get an entire new notebook with embedded 802.11n for about what you paid 10 years ago for just the card. Similar trends hold true for cellular data and 3G: NICs will be given away--provided you're willing to sign a two-year service contract. OK, that's a significant catch, but the potential value of mobile broadband service, available anytime and nearly anywhere, is irresistible for companies with a high proportion of mobile employees.

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2007 SURVIVOR GUIDE INTRODUCTION BUSINESS STRATEGY SECURITY WIRELESS STORAGE & SERVERS MESSAGING & COLLABORATION APPLICATION INFRASTRUCTURE ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS NETWORK MANAGEMENT NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE

It's not wireless nirvana for all, though. Yes, there is potential for increased productivity, but there's also a ton of risk, most notably from the obvious challenge of securing the wireless communication path and the data residing on all those laptops and smartphones. There's also the risk of jumping into the market too soon. Products are still complex, and future standards may well render today's offerings inadequate, if not obsolete.