The Total Cost of a Wireless Network
Posted by
Norman J. Jacknis
December 01, 2006
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Technologists are under pressure to justify the investments they propose each year. Senior technology executives must explain the immediate cost of acquiring some new system, as well as the long-term financial impact. Thus, IT decision-makers must calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO) over the lifecycle of the technology and identify benefits that justify that TCO.
But TCO can be tricky to estimate because it includes so much more than the invoice you get from the vendor.
This article is the first in a new series to help with that task. Using a fictional company as a model, we walk you step by step through the costs involved with deploying a wireless network, including the planning, installation, management and other costs that arise over a reasonable lifetime of use. We chose a WLAN because more and more enterprises are going wireless to boost user productivity and take advantage of the inherent mobility of laptops.
